Dogs smell fear in humans, attack those who have been bitten: Supreme Court

The bench is hearing applications seeking modification of its November 7, 2025 order, by which it had directed removal of dogs from premises of institutions like schools, hospitals, sports complexes, bus stands and railway stations to a designated shelter, after due sterilisation and vaccination in accordance with the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules. The court had also directed that the strays so picked up shall not be released to the same location from which they were picked up.

Appearing for NGO PETA, senior advocate Shyan Diwan backed the formation of an expert committee to look into the various facets of the issue. He pointed out that as per ABC Rules, dogs should be released in the same area from where they were picked up after sterilisation. “Experts can suggest where re-release can be ruled out,” he said.

Earlier in the hearing, senior advocate C U Singh said that many places in the country, and especially cities like Delhi, face rodent and monkey menaces and that the presence of dogs helps maintain the balance.

“The effect of removal of dogs is that the rodent population shoots up. And it leads to unintended consequences. Rodents are disease carriers. As long as there is natural balance, the rodent population is suppressed and the diseases don’t spread,” Singh said.

Justice Mehta, however, wondered what was the correlation. “You are trying to correlate. So, we are asking you.”

To this, Singh said he was not trying to correlate but only saying “there can be unintended consequences”.

In a lighter vein, Justice Mehta said, “Dogs and cats are enemies. Cats kill rodents. So, we must promote more cats and lesser dogs. That will be the solution… All flights of fancy which you are arguing…”

The judge added, “We are repeating. We have not directed removal of every dog from the street. The direction is to treat them as per (ABC) Rules.” He said that the only other direction was with regard to removing dogs from institutions, “which is what is now being questioned”.

To this, Singh said, “We are not questioning. We are only requesting Your Lordships to revisit it to modulate it. Let those dogs also be regulated, which has proved to be the only efficacious manner, which is sterilisation, vaccination and re-release in the territory from which they were captured.”

Justice Mehta then asked, “Tell us how many dogs each hospital should have? Roaming around in the corridors, in the wards, near the patients’ beds?”

A counsel appearing for an organisation named Lok Abhiyan referred to a stray dog biting four persons. He said this happened when it was released onto the streets after sterilisation. “After the first aggressive bite has been demonstrated, should a dog be released?” he wondered.

Senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal, appearing for an animal rights’ advocate, said, “At present, only 66 ABC centres have been accredited.”

“The estimated cost for what had been proposed by the court can go up to Rs 26,800 crore… 91,800 new shelters will have to be constructed,” he said, adding there is no budgetary allocation for the implementation of ABC Rules.

“If animal birth control centres have to come up in each district, it would cost Rs 1,600 crore…,” he said.

Doubting how much the direction to remove strays to shelters would work, senior advocate Dhruv Mehta – appearing for an intervenor – said that Delhi alone had 5.6 lakh dogs as per the last Census conducted in 2009. “Where does one keep them if they are captured,” he askedThe hearing will continue on Friday.