A representative photo of dogs.
Credit; DH File Photo
Animal activists in the city have alleged that the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and the five corporations have shifted about 184 stray dogs without following due procedure.
The corporation, attempting to comply with the Supreme Court direction to move stray dogs in public places to shelters, have failed to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) laid down by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).
“The Supreme Court order requires designated shelters with specific dimensions, as determined under the SOP of AWBI to be fixed by the GBA. The temporary shelters proposed by the GBA, which are Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres, are not part of this procedure,” said Sathwik Putta, a lawyer with South Bengaluru Cares.
Samyukta Hornad, actor and founder of Praana Foundation, opined that such a move will also affect the ABC programme. "The apex court order is completely illogical. What is worse is the GBA’s implementation of the order. They do not have kennels. These temporary shelters are nothing but ABC centres. If the ABC centres are filled with these healthy dogs, who is going to do ABC?” she said.
Activists also pointed out that the GBA had not planned the process and had instead hastily caught the dogs.
“The chronology with which the Supreme Court order and AWBI SOP is to be implemented by the GBA is through identification, fencing, nodal officer appointment, vaccination and neutering, identifying designated permanent shelters and then, only then, catching dog."But they are catching dogs before even fencing these identified areas.
"It completely contradicts the Supreme Court order and runs in contempt of court. This is state-sponsored cruelty,” said Alwyn Sebastian, an animal rights lawyer.
“You need time, funds and infrastructure to build shelters and implement this order and the same cannot be implemented in haste,” said Mallika Menon, Trustee, CARE.