NEW DELHI: URGING the Kerala government to stop culling of stray dogs in the state, activist and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan wrote a letter to the Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, stating that if the state proceeded with the culling, he would petition the Supreme Court citing contempt of court.
Bhushan in his letter quoted the statements of Local Administration Minister Dr K T Jaleel and Animal Husbandary Minister K Raju that culling of stray dogs would be launched shortly.
In his letter, Bhushan has said that he will move the apex court if the state plans to go ahead with the culling of dogs.
“If your government takes any such action, we will submit a contempt of court petition with the SC with urgent mentioning, as the action is in clear violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, the Indian Penal Code and also the contempt of the Supreme Court of India,” stated the letter.
Bhushan pointed out to the Chief Minister that on November 2015 the Supreme Court had ordered a complete stay on culling of animals and on March 2016, the bench had also mentioned that stray dog issue occurred mainly due to lack of proper implementation of animal birth control programmes and culling was no solution.
The letter quoted the order, “There can be no trace of doubt that there need to be compassion for dogs and they should not be killed in an indiscriminate manner, but indubitably the lives of the human beings are also to be saved and one should not suffer due to dog bites because of administrative lapse,” a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra had said in the November 18, 2015 order.
The March 9, 2016 order stated, “If the Municipal Corporation or the local authority find it expedient to control street dog population, it shall be incumbent upon them to sterilize and immunise street dogs with the participation of animal welfare organizations, private individuals and the local authority.”