Dear Ms Anjali,
The dog PIL came up for hearing again in the Court of Chief Justice J&K High Court yesterday. The press reports bringing out most of what transpired are attached below. I have also obtained additional documents from the Urban Development Department and the High Court that indeed vindicate some of the concerns that I have been consistently voicing all along. I will post you these soon separately and I will leave it to your sagacity and the wisdom of animal sympathizers on this list to assess the ramifications these bode for the animals and the ABC in J&K.
1. The SMC accepted on affidavit yesterday that a Committee including a member of the AWBI had indeed ‘identified’ ‘Pounds’ (not found viable eventually) as opposed to a sterilization centre, for keeping the dogs and was at pains to explain that the sterilization could be started drawing the Court’s attention to measures already under way to set up sterilization facility at the Veterinary University. The Bench rejected that argument and repeated that the solution essentially lied in its earlier orders of creation of ‘Pounds’ stressing that ‘all stray dogs’ should be ‘confined’ there as the public ire against their sight was such that they faced sure mob death. The AWBI lawyer wanted to convince the Bench on ABC measures but the Court said it would hear him once the previous direction of ‘creating Pounds’ and ‘confining all the dogs’ there had first been complied with.
2. From the approach of the Court yesterday it became clear that the Bench is under the notion that further action post-capture of dogs would be decided upon only after a ‘Pound’ is set up and ‘all the stray dogs’ (1 lakh according to SMC deposition) confined? From the language and utterances of the Bench it also seems that their idea of sterilization is to sterilize them once ‘all the stray dogs’ are ‘confined’ (imagine the horrendous situation of holding 1 lakh dogs for any length of time) and then retain them in perpetuity at the ‘Pounds’ post sterilization? The Chief Justice is unable to comprehend or be convinced by SMC or AWBI that this is simply impossible and impractical and that the actual remedy lies in calibrated capture area wise and simultaneous release.
3. In the event the SMC has been directed to establish commensurate facility at the 35 acre ‘Pound’ to house ‘all the stray dogs’ and report compliance on 2 September.
4. The government papers also state this to be the official position and I shall shortly be posting on net.
I have already filed for a copy of the Order and will post it here shortly. The Order sure creates confusion galore and the word ‘sterilization’ is rendered redundant ab-initio once you realize that the Bench first wants a) Humongous ‘Pounds’ costing cores b) blanket ‘confinement of all dogs first’ (a lakh of them) before we proceed with sterilization and c) leaves little scope for release to parent habitat? At any rate and in any case if this Quixotic order were to be ever complied with most of the dogs would die in capture or post-captivity. If not then – sadly, but eventually between being lodged in the midst of a lakh of dogs and their purported sterilization.
With best wises,
( JAVED IQBAL SHAH )
Legal Adviser
Animal Welfare Board of India
New Delhi
THE DAILY RISING KASHMIR
HC asks SMC to build ponds for stray dogs at Khimber
( ISHFAQ TANTRY )
SRINAGAR, AUG17: Observing that catching stray dogs is necessary otherwise they would be stoned to death, High Court Wednesday directed Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) to go ahead with construction of lodging dogs in a pound at Khimber, Harwan. The order of HC Division Bench came in response to a Public interest Litigation (PIL) calling for an end to dog menace in Kashmir particularly in Srinagar City.
In its affidavit submitted to the Court today, SMC had said the construction of dog ponds at Khimber was stopped following suggestions by the government appointed expert committee that the land identified is not “viable for creation of dog ponds nor is the approach of the site easily accessible”.
After going through the affidavit submitted by SMC Commissioner Sheikh Mushtaq, the division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice F M Ibrahim Kalifullah and Justice Muzaffar Attar observed that there is no need for the SMC to stop further construction. “Instead it should take control of the land,” it observed.
The court directed SMC to proceed ahead with the construction of main ponds for dogs at Khimber. “They are directed to file the status of development about the matter in this court after two weeks”, the Division Bench ordered.
It further directed that initially SMC shall construct the ponds for dogs from its own funds and that reimbursement of funds with government can be taken up at a later stage.
On submission by SMC counsel that the process for construction of two ponds for dog sterilization at Shuhama Veterinary Centre is already underway, Chief Justice observed that it should first catch dogs and later sterilize them.
“The administration should have taken the step at a very early stage. It is now necessary to catch the dogs and keep them in ponds, otherwise they would be stoned to death” observed Justice Kalifullah. In its affidavit, SMC Commissioner had submitted that expert committee had opined that Khimber site be abandoned as it would involve huge financial and official resources and still may not be feasible place for creation of dog ponds.
The PIL filed by Advocates Nadeem Qadri, A R Hanjura and a law student Syed Musaib seeks intervention of courts to address the threatening dog menace in the Srinagar city. It said the fear and phobia of stray dogs haunts everybody especially the children as 25000 people have been bitten by dogs in Srinagar in last 5 years. “The authorities should be made accountable for the loss of human lives due to canine bites,” it added.