Animal rights group PETA India has strongly criticised the Supreme Court’s recent directive to relocate all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR to dedicated shelters within eight weeks, calling the move “impractical, illogical, and illegal” under existing animal birth control rules.
Speaking to reporters, PETA India Advocacy Associate Shaurya Agrawal said the Delhi government had been given 24 years to implement sterilisation programmes under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules but had failed to do so effectively. “Delhi has 10 lakh dogs and only half of them are sterilised. Housing them in shelters is impractical. It is very difficult. This is going to create chaos and problems,” Agrawal said.
#WATCH | Delhi: On SC order to send all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR to shelters within 8 weeks, PETA India Advocacy Associate, Shaurya Agrawal says, “This particular order is impractical, illogical and according to the animal birth control rules, also illegal. The Delhi government… pic.twitter.com/T5BLFWy8kQ
— ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2025
The Supreme Court, while hearing a case on rising stray dog attacks and rabies-related deaths, ordered civic authorities in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram to remove all stray dogs from residential areas and house them in secure, escape-proof shelters. It also barred the adoption of strays and warned of “strictest action” against any group obstructing the exercise.
Agrawal argued that the removal of dogs from the streets was “inhumane” and amounted to cruelty, adding that shelter conditions could be “very bad” for the animals. “Removal of dogs is inhumane, is cruelty in itself, and the conditions within the shelters are going to be very bad,” he said.
He added that PETA India is “exploring all our legal avenues” to challenge the order and reiterated the organisation’s longstanding demand for the government to focus on sterilisation and vaccination drives instead of mass removal. “In the past, we have met the Delhi government and have urged them to implement the ABC rules properly and the sterilisation programs in the city,” he said.
The Supreme Court’s order comes amid rising public concern over dog bites, with official data showing 49 rabies cases and over 35,000 animal bite incidents in Delhi between January and June this year.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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