Panel in Delhi discusses moving towards a national solution for street dog management

In the wake of the recent Suo Moto judgment, which has intensified debate and division across the country, a panel of parliamentarians, legal experts, activists, administrators, and civil society leaders on 16 February convened in Delhi to deliberate on a humane, constitutional, and nationally coordinated solution to street dog management in India.

The discussion acknowledged that the judgment has deepened polarisation between community animal caregivers and those demanding the permanent removal of street dogs. This divide has resulted not only in increased violence against community animals, including disturbing incidents reported in Telangana, but also harassment and attacks on feeders and caretakers.

Two urgent realities were unanimously acknowledged: The Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme has been severely underfunded and underutilized, and permanent mass sheltering is neither a sustainable nor humane solution. The panel emphasized that India must move away from reactive measures like culling and instead focus on scientific sterilization, vaccination, accountability, and public awareness.

Senior parliamentarian Renuka Chowdhury stressed that cruelty toward animals is often a precursor to cruelty toward humans. Highlighting successful adoption drives — including over 120 - 130 Indie dogs adopted in recent campaigns — she demonstrated that humane solutions are workable when backed by intent. She pointed out the imbalance in media narratives, noting that while bite incidents receive widespread attention, the killing of a feeder did not receive proportional coverage. She further raised concerns about illegal breeding and abandonment, and called for greater awareness, multilingual public education campaigns, and collaborative governance.

MP Priyanka Chaturvedi acknowledged that human–dog conflict does exist and must be addressed responsibly. She called for auditable municipal spending records, transparent dashboards for data tracking (as introduced by BMC), and technological integration – including AI tools – to manage sterilization, vaccination, and complaint systems effectively. She emphasized public–private partnerships, structured budgeting for technology-driven monitoring, and cross-party collaboration. “We cannot work in silos,” she noted, adding that coordinated action between Centre, State, and civil society is critical.

Activist Anjali Gopalan emphasized that NGOs can demonstrate what works, but political will is indispensable. Citing the Netherlands as a global example, she highlighted adoption drives and strict breeding control as effective models. She warned that internationally documented patterns show that many perpetrators of violent crimes begin with acts of cruelty toward animals, often enabled by weak legal systems.

Advocate Poulomi Pavini Shukla delivered an intervention linking child welfare and animal welfare. She noted that a society unkind to animals cannot be kind to its children. Drawing attention to India’s estimated 31 million orphaned children and 1.68 crore children living on the streets, she questioned the prioritization of funds toward permanent dog shelters when critical human welfare sectors remain under-resourced. She cautioned that large-scale sheltering could create health crises, including viral outbreaks affecting both animals and humans. Emphasizing community-based sterilization success – including achieving nearly 80% sterilization coverage over five years in Lucknow – she argued that humane, decentralized ABC implementation works.

Anil Goswami of RWA Jangpura called for a unified RWA platform to collectively demand accountability from municipalities. “Each one, teach one,” he urged, emphasizing community-level awareness. Some key resolutions that emerged from the discussion are, immediate and adequate funding for the ABC programme, transparent dashboards and auditable municipal spending records, centre–state coordination and cross-party collaboration, strict regulation of illegal breeding and abandonment.

The call from the gathering was clear: move beyond polarization, reject fear-based narratives, and build a national framework grounded in compassion, data transparency, and collaborative governance.


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