A case for science in stray dog control

The Apex court’s ongoing suo motu cognisance of the stray dog issue has once again put the spotlight on two diabolical camps—’dog lovers’ and ‘dog haters’. This framing is both false and unproductive. At the core, both sides seek the same outcomes: reduced human-dog conflict, no dog-related fatalities, and zero rabies deaths.  

The challenge before the courts is not to frame this as a contest between humans and dogs but to find workable solutions within existing laws—while ensuring government responsibility, accountability and systemic efficiency. 

The Court’s interim order of November 25, directing the removal of dogs from specific locations with fencing to prevent new ingress, may appear balanced. In practice, however, ad hoc measures are unlikely to resolve the underlying problem.

India is home to millions of free-ranging dogs. Housing even a fraction would require enormous infrastructure and sustained public funding.
Estimates place the annual cost at over Rs 29,000 crore nationwide, with states like Karnataka alone requiring nearly Rs 5,000 crore—at a time when critical human welfare programmes remain underfunded.

Second, dog population and rabies control programmes are already stretched thin. If routine capture, sterilisation, and vaccination struggle to keep pace, it is unrealistic to expect these systems to manage mass removals and long-term confinement – either logistically or humanely.

Thirdly, removing dogs from an area creates a ‘vacuum effect’ -- a space that is quickly filled by unvaccinated, unsterilised dogs from neighbouring areas, often increasing conflict.

Warehousing dogs in cramped cages hardly reflects India’s constitutional ethos of compassion under Article 51 A (g). Poorly managed shelters can also become sources of environmental contamination, threatening public health and urban wildlife.

What, then, does work? Evidence from India and abroad consistently points to sustained Animal Birth Control (ABC) combined with Anti-Rabies Vaccination (ARV). ABC-ARV is globally recognised as the most cost-effective, scientific and humane way to gradually reduce dog populations while breaking the rabies transmission cycle. Bhutan and the Netherlands have demonstrated its success through high sterilisation coverage and public awareness. In India, Goa’s sustained interventions of the government-Mission Rabies have helped bring human rabies cases down to zero. 

The Supreme Court itself mandated ABC–ARV in 2009 (SLP (c) 691-2009) across all districts. Yet compliance remains poor. Karnataka offers a partial exception. Bengaluru, under the Greater Bengaluru Administration, has developed a relatively comprehensive dog population and rabies control strategy. Each city corporation has a recognised ABC partner, and like in Goa, Mission Rabies supports mass ARV coverage and monitoring, and the city hosts the World Organisation for Animal Health Rabies Reference Laboratory, providing regional diagnostic expertise.

With dog censuses, real-time tracking and community participation, Bengaluru presents a data-driven model that can be scaled across Karnataka. With concurrent pet licensing – crucial given that nearly 25% of rabies cases are attributed to pet dogs – the state has the institutional capacity to lead the way towards becoming a rabies-dog-population-controlled state. The Chief Secretary of the State must place before the Court a strong and sustainable affidavit reflecting the state’s capabilities, in keeping with the chief minister’s stated support for scientific and compassionate solutions to human-dog coexistence.

More broadly, courts must hold states accountable for designing and executing time-bound plans with expert inputs. Responsible community caregiving, waste management and public awareness are integral to success. Stray dog management, like garbage management, sanitation, or traffic, is complex and continuous. Laws exist; the real challenge lies in implementation. There are no quick fixes -- only sustained political will, funding, public participation and patience.

Dogs are on our streets not by accident but by human design – products of domestication shaped over centuries. In urban ecosystems, they play largely unacknowledged roles, from waste scavenging and rodent control to providing companionship and informal security. 

Punishing dogs for systemic failures is neither just nor effective. Impounding them often creates more problems than it solves.  A nationwide, sustained ABC-ARV programme remains the only viable path forward --one that protects both human lives and animal welfare.

(Harini is co-founder of Multiversal Advisory/Citizens for Animal Birth Control, and Nandita is a civic activist)