Why, to tackle the stray dog problem, it is important to make pet owners accountable, too

Status report: Stray dogs and pet dogs

There are more than 60 million stray dogs in India. Very few of them survive disease and vehicular accidents to die natural deaths. Also, someone is bitten by a dog in India every 10 seconds. This works out to more than 3 million bites a year, of which around 5,000 turn out to be fatal.

Dogs spread more than 60 diseases to people. Rabies alone claims at least two human lives every three hours. More than 15,000 tonnes of dog poop and 8 million gallons of dog pee – a major health and environmental hazard – is discharged on Indian roads and fields daily.

India’s pet dog population was estimated at 30 million in 2024. The population of pet dogs, along with India’s dog food market, has grown at 10-15% per year over the last five years. The size of the Indian pet dog industry, currently worth Rs 300 crore, is projected to double by 2030.

There are upscale dog hotels such as Critterati in Gurgaon, and dog grooming parlours such as Scoopy Scrub in Delhi, Fuzzy Wuzzy in Bengaluru, and Tailwaggers in Mumbai. Companies such as Bajaj Allianz and Future Generali offer dog health insurance.

Various ideas to tackle strays, all ineffective

While cherishing their “best friends” at home, Indians have been far less kind to them on the street. Historically, there have been efforts to eliminate the stray dog problem by means including electrocution, poisoning, shooting, or just clubbing them to death.

But long before the killing of dogs became an animal rights issue, it had become evident that short of elimination en masse, this would not have a lasting effect on the population of strays. As food becomes increasingly abundant (garbage dumps, and individual and organised feeders), the partial elimination of the stray population reduces the competition for resources and boosts breeding.

Thus came the idea of sterilisation. Since 1992, NGOs such as Chennai-based Blue Cross of India, and various governments have carried out Animal Birth Control (ABC) programmes in several cities. In 2001, the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules were notified under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

However, unless at least two-thirds of a canine population is sterilised within a small (typically 6-12 months) window, ABC drives fail to have any stabilising effect. With the job left to a few NGOs, every Indian city has struggled to achieve the target that requires neutering hundreds of stray dogs every day for months. But even if that mark is hit, stray dog populations may still continue to increase.

When pet dogs contribute to stray numbers

There is no national law in India that requires dog owners to register their pets. A few cities have such rules, but enforcement remains shoddy. It is not mandatory to get pets sterilised or vaccinated either.

Since owners are not accountable for their dogs or their dogs’ pups, hundreds of unwanted pet dogs and pups are abandoned on the street daily. Also, thousands of pet dogs are allowed to roam or break free and breed with street strays.

In consequence, even as governments and NGOs continue to neuter a few dogs on the street, pet dogs, thanks to callous owners, add to the stray population. This is also why the so-called ‘Indian street dog’ is mostly mongrels of various crossbreeds.

The solution, experts say, is to have ABC drives target pedigreed pets with high breeding frequency. The government could offer incentives to owners to get their pets registered and sterilised. A steep tax may be levied on breeding pets.

The problem with petting without owning

Equally irresponsible is the trend of petting dogs outside the home. In all cities, neighbourhood good samaritans feed stray dogs on the streets outside their homes or workplaces. This has the same effect as petting, and turns stray dogs territorial and aggressive. Such feeding has also created monsters of monkeys in many parts of India. Over the decades, governments cutting across party lines have sponsored the feeding of stray dogs by various organisations.

In The Ecology of Stray Dogs: A Study of Free-ranging Urban Animals (1973), possibly the most authoritative work on the subject, Alan Beck wrote: “Loose or straying pets and stray (feral) dogs are different. True stray dogs form somewhat stable packs… are more active at night and cautious about people. In general, straying pets have smaller home ranges and [are] active when people are.”

This is why abandoned or proxy pet dogs on the street are more likely to be aggressive towards people who do not pet (or feed) them. Thus, not only do some pet owners contribute to the growing population of strays, they also bear responsibility for many dog attacks on people.

Anticipating resistance from some quarters, the Supreme Court warned on Monday that any individual or organisation coming in the way of implementing its order would face legal action. It may widen its gaze to make pet owners and proxy pet feeders accountable when it hears the matter again after six weeks.