India's Stray Dog Policy Reversal: Judicial Balancing of Animal Welfare and Public Safety

When public safety clashes with animal rights, law must tread carefully and India’s Supreme Court, in its revised stray dog directive, has done just that. Responding to intense backlash including protests, petitions, and political exhortations, the Court amended its earlier ruling mandating the wholesale relocation of stray dogs from Delhi and surrounding areas to shelters.

Read The Earlier Judgement: https://www.mrmlxp.in/post/from-streets-to-shelters-scoi-s-zero-tolerance-on-stray-dog-menace

The modification now requires that dogs be sterilised, immunised, and then safely returned to their original locations, except those deemed rabid or aggressive. This change integrates humane treatment with public health imperatives.

The Court also directed the creation of designated feeding zones and signaled a broader move by asking States and Union Territories to formulate a uniform national policy aligned with Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules, blending decentralised implementation with central oversight.

This decision reflects judicial humility recognising that implementation without adequate infrastructure would fail not just animals but communities. With Delhi alone estimated to host around one million stray dogs and the country recording nearly 430,000 dog‐bite cases in January 2025, the need for a viable solution was urgent. Still, housing every animal in shelters was neither scalable nor necessarily humane.

So the Court opted for a middling path: balancing sterilisation-based population control with scientific, rights-oriented compassion and operational feasibility.

Read the full Reuters article here: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-top-court-revises-stray-dog-policy-after-public-outcry-2025-08-22/