NEW DELHI: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing proposals that rely on the lifelong confinement of animals and urging the government to adopt humane and science-based approaches to managing stray dog and cattle populations.
In a letter submitted to the PM’s Office, PETA India shared two policy documents—Roadmap for Humane Management of Community Dogs in India and Roadmap for Humane Management of Stray Cattle in India. The organisation said the roadmaps are rooted in Indian ethical principles such as Ahimsa (non-violence) and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family), and present practical alternatives to what it described as punitive and ineffective measures.
“With an estimated 62 million free-roaming dogs in India, there is no realistic infrastructure, funding or administrative capacity to confine even a fraction of them,” PETA India said. It added that mass confinement would divert scarce public resources away from the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, which prioritise sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccination—measures widely recognised as effective in controlling dog populations and preventing disease.
Senior Policy and Legal Advisor to PETA India, Vikram Chandravanshi, said, “Confining dogs for life in spaces the size of a funeral pyre is not scientific population management. It is incarceration, on death row.” He further cautioned that overcrowded confinement facilities could worsen outbreaks of infectious diseases such as canine distemper, parvovirus and kennel cough, while increasing the risk of zoonotic infections and human-animal conflict.