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Contents
Source: The post is based on the article “Caring for strays” published in The Hindu on 21st April 2023
What is the News?
The Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 could further worsen the stray dog menace crisis.
About Stray Dog Menace in India
According to the World Health Organization, 36% of the world’s and 65% of Southeast Asia’s rabies deaths happen in India.
The National Rabies Control Programme has recorded 6,644 clinically suspected cases and deaths of human rabies in 2012-22.
There have also been several media reports of the young and the old being attacked by packs of stray dogs, fatally in some cases.
How has the government of India responded to the stray dog menace in India?
The government of India has released the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023.
The rules purportedly respond to three stimuli: 1) strays cannot be relocated (as the Supreme Court of India has held) 2) must not face cruelty and 3) must be cared for.
What are the key concerns with the rules?
Firstly, the rules ask residents’ welfare associations to care for stray dogs and feed them away from the children and the elderly, at fixed intervals.
– This could further the dogs’ homelessness, and thus susceptibility to disease, injury, and discomfort.
– Instead, the rules must prohibit the improper disposal of solid waste and casual feeding of dogs, and require them to be adopted and directly cared for, to eliminate canine homelessness altogether.
Secondly, the rules say that the local authorities will be held responsible for any violation [during birth-control procedures] and animal-human conflicts.
– But these local authorities are suffering from a lack of funds and staff, the requisite infrastructure and proper coordination. Without these, the 2023 Rules potentially create more points of failure at the level of local governments.
