NEW DELHI: Animal welfare organisations and several animal lovers in Delhi posted letter petitions to the Supreme Court on Saturday requesting to revoke the latest order on stray dog removal from certain public places in the country. The movement was limited not just to the capital but was spread across the states.
Refusing to term it as a protest, all the animal lovers across the country were asked to go to their nearest post office to send these letters to the SC. The exercise aspires to be India’s largest coordinated letter petition posting to the apex court.
Speaking to the newspaper, Sheela, an animal feeder from Delhi’s Jorbagh area, said, “This is the last resort we have. Over the last few months we have protested immensely to roll back this inhumane order, but nothing worked.”
Issuing a notice, Animal Writes, a social media page spearheading this campaign across India, stated, “Among the many ways available for raising matters of public importance before the Supreme Court, a letter petition is one such avenue. In light of the widespread distress caused, citizens across the country are invoking this right to engage respectfully and constitutionally with the court, expressing their concerns over the order passed on the community animals’ suo motu case.”
At present, millions of people throughout the country are requesting a stay, recall and reconsideration of the order passed by the apex court in the community animals matter on November 7 asking to remove dogs from institutional areas.
“Since the order was passed, I have been receiving innumerable videos of animal cruelty cases,” says 69-year-old animal activist Priya Tuli. She further says, “I have been taking care of community animals since I was 13 years old, and never in these many years have I seen such a scenario.”
As per the latest numbers, more than one lakh such letters were posted since morning today. “We are expecting 10 lakh such letter petitions to go to the Chief Justice of India regarding this matter,” Ambika Shukla, Trustee at Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre, said.
The SC on November 7 had ordered that all stray dogs be removed from public premises such as educational institutions, hospitals, railway and bus stands, and relocated to shelters after sterilisation. The court observed that releasing the dogs in the same spots would defeat the very purpose of the exercise.