[Stray dog menace] Impose fine on citizens feeding them on roads, public places: Bombay High Court

In order to tackle the menace caused by stray dogs, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court recently ordered authorities to impose a fine of not more than ₹200 on citizens who feed them on roads and in public places [Vijay Shankarrao Talewar vs State of Maharashtra]..A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Pansare noted that despite measures by the authorities, the menace of stray dogs has increased in Nagpur city because of the irresponsible behaviour of some citizens, who feed such dogs on the streets. It suggested such citizens should adopt the dogs and take them to their homes and feed them. "These citizens posing themselves as sympathizers and friends of stray dogs offer food packets and different titbits to stray dogs unmindful of the great harm that they are doing to the society. These supposed friends of stray dogs do not realise the disastrous consequences of their charity. Fed on the goodies provided by the animal lover, many of the stray dogs become insolent and get even more violent in their behaviour towards human beings in general and children in particular," the bench observed. .The bench said that if these so called friends of stray dogs are really interested in protection and welfare of the strays, they must adopt the stray dogs, take them home or at least put them up in some good dog shelter homes and bear all the expenses for their registration with municipal authorities and towards their maintenance, health and vaccination."They must understand that real charity lies in taking the complete care and not just feeding and then leaving poor creatures to fend for themselves. This is the most basic duty a benevolent must perform if he has real compassion for stray dogs. But the so called friends of stray dogs shy away from performing this basic duty of theirs and the result is of uncontrolled growth in population and nuisance of stray dogs," the Court said.The bench, therefore, directed that in general no citizen or resident of Nagpur and areas surrounding it shall feed the stray dogs in public places, gardens etc."We further direct that if any person is interested in feeding stray dogs, he shall first adopt the stray dog/bitch, bring it to home, register it with Municipal Authorities or put it in some dogs shelter home and then shower his love and affection on it, may feed it while taking it’s personal care in all respect. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation to impose appropriate penalty for any breach of these directions, which penalty may not be more than of Rs.200/- for every breach," the bench ordered..The Court further noted that Section 44 of the Maharashtra Police Act allows destruction of stray dogs. It ordered that authorities must consider implementing it though not to the extent of destroying them but detaining them."The action that may be taken under Section 44 of the Maharashtra Police Act, we add, may not be of the extreme nature of destruction of the stray dog but, it can be at least in the nature of detention of the stray dog as per the procedure prescribed and then handing over the stray dog to the Monitoring Committee setup for their appropriate placement/ disposal," the bench ordered..Taking the overall view of the issue, the judges said, there is a need for the authorities to take charge of the matter, as required under the law and also the need for samaritans to come forward and render their assistance to the authorities in controlling the stray dog hazard."This is not to say that there is something wrong about the view that dog generally is the best friend of man but, this has to be taken with circumspection when it comes to dogs which are strays and are not kept as pets. Many of these strays are aggressive, ferociously wild and simply uncontrollable in their behaviour," the bench observed..Advocate FT Mirza appeared for the Petitioners.Additional Government Pleader DP Thakre represented the State.Advocate SM Puranik represented the Nagpur Municipal Corporation.Advocates Ashwin Deshpande and Aradhya Pande appeared for the Intervenor..[Read Order]