‘Cruel, Impractical’: Pune citizens protest SC ruling on community dogs

‘Order passed without hearing us’

Mariam Abuhaideri, an animal activist who helped organise the rally, said the community felt sidelined when the court passed the order without granting NGOs or volunteers a hearing.

“The Supreme Court issued interim orders without hearing from the animal-loving community, despite taking rupees 25,000 and 2 lakh from NGOs and individuals. It is unconstitutional and goes against the ABC Rules,” she told the Indian Express.

She added that the ABC Rules mandate sterilisation, vaccination and release of dogs back to their territories, a process she said is globally recognised and scientifically proven.

“Dogs are not evil. They live peacefully in their territories. Removing them creates a vacuum, brings new unsterilised dogs in and increases conflict,” she said. “This ruling is senseless and impractical.”

Another protester, who requested anonymity, said the order could “break the bond” between communities and the dogs they care for. “These dogs have protected our lanes for years. We have raised their puppies, vaccinated them and fed them from our own pockets. Suddenly calling them a threat is unjust to both people and animals,” she said.

Activists also claimed that some reports had inflated dog-bite statistics, arguing that even citizens seeking pre-bite vaccination doses were often counted as ‘bite cases’. “Rabies deaths have sharply dropped since 2022 according to parliamentary data,” Abuhaideri added.

Activists call the issue structural

While activists criticised the ruling, former animal welfare officer Meher D’Arcy told the Indian Express that the deeper problem lies in chronic underfunding of the sterilisation programme and the political interference involving relocation.

“The problem is structural, financial and not municipal,” D’Arcy said. “The ABC programme is designed well, the PMC is forced to work within fettered limits but the issues– mainly budgets, manpower, coordination between departments, is broken. Sterilisation cannot succeed when the infrastructure behind it is not supported by adequate funding.”

“The ABC program works well as we have seen it in South Mumbai, Lucknow and Uttarakhand. But in Pune, corporators pass budgets so small that only a small 10% of dogs can be sterilised. What happens to the remaining dogs? They reproduce,” she said.

“These relocations must stop, as these dogs are normally harmless. It is relocation that causes fear and trauma that could lead to defensive aggression,” she said.

She also questioned the practicality of the court’s directive to fence bus stops and remove dogs from large public spaces. “Just imagine the scale, thousands of bus stops, lakhs of dogs, and no space, no staff, no funds. You cannot put 3,000 dogs in each shelter without causing disease, cruelty and chaos. This is simply not implementable,” she noted.

D’Arcy added that the court should have appointed a panel of animal welfare experts, bureaucrats and planners to study the issue on the ground before passing the order. “This ruling feels like a knee-jerk reaction. Even judges don’t have the time to study the ground realities,” she said.

Call for holistic solutions

Protesters demanded strict anti-cruelty enforcement, mass sterilisation drives, regulation of illegal breeding, and government incentives for adoption which are measures they said used in countries like Bhutan and the Netherlands.
They also urged municipalities to introduce microchipping and licensing systems for dogs residing in schools and institutions, ensuring accountability and vaccination tracking.

The protesters’ slogans can be heard loudly with a plea for “coexistence over cruelty,” as activists promised to continue challenging the order through legal routes and public awareness.