Supreme Court has decided to hear a PIL seeking a direction to immediately stop culling of stray dogs in Kerala, claiming the State administration was on a rampage carrying out the order “indiscriminately, barbarically and in the most cruel, grotesque and monstrous manner.”
A bench of Justices TS Thakur and V Gopala Gowda did not pass any order on the PIL and said that the matter would be heard on November 18 by another bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, one which is hearing similar pleas.
The PIL, filed by advocate Anupam Tripathi, has termed the Kerala government’s July 9 decision to cull stray dogs in the State as “illegal, cruel and barbaric.”
An all-party meeting chaired by the Kerala Chief Minister on July 9 decided to cull and destroy over 2.5 lakh stray dogs in the State, the petition said.
The Municipal Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram and all similar local municipal bodies in the State have been given instructions to carry out the culling, it added.
“If some reliable sources are to be believed as per newspapers reports and animal rights activists in Kerala, more than 300-1,000 plus stray dogs are being mercilessly hacked to death each day in the most cruel fashion,” the plea said, while seeking an immediate ban on it.
It further said the decision was also against the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the Animal Birth Control Rules (ABC Rules) and the provisions of the Indian Penal Code among other laws.
It has sought a direction “to set up an independent committee” to investigate the killings of innocent stray dogs in the State.