Stray dogs: Need for compassion | Photo Credit: SRINATH M

Denmark made empathy a mandatory part of its school teaching programme in 1993. In 2025, it added animal welfare and responsible pet care to the primary school curriculum. Meanwhile, in India, the Supreme Court wants to ban dogs from institutions – from schools, colleges, hospitals, and public spaces - and consign them to a caged existence in shelters.

Admittedly, India has a huge dog dilemma, and the mounting anger over cases of dog bites is justifiable. The street dog population has exploded over the years (as has the human), and peaceful co-existence no longer seems feasible. But the anger seems to be misdirected.

Govt failure

The civic bodies have abjectly failed in the animal birth control (ABC) programmes and shown gross negligence in their duties and yet the public and judicial anger seems to be directed at voiceless dogs and their carers.

The term being used by the courts is ‘feeders’ but what many dog lovers do is beyond simple feeding and there exists a very strong bond between the community dog and carers.

Showing compassion

In my neighbourhood in East Delhi, there are approximately 150 community dogs. Out of these a hundred are under the direct care of a band of responsible volunteers, and each pooch has a name, has vaccination records and has been sterilised. The last litter of dogs born in the locality was in January 2021. There have been negligible bite cases in the last decade by any of the dogs under the care of the volunteers.

The few that have happened have been by dogs that have been dumped in the neighbourhood – this happens off and on, with the frequency increasing since August 11, 2025 when the Supreme Court in a suo motu case ordered all strays to be captured and housed in shelters. Suddenly new dogs arrived in our area, but the volunteers took swift action – rounding them up and getting them vaccinated and sterilised and trying to find shelters for them.

Thankfully, the absurd order was reversed on August 22, 2025 with a different bench giving the directive to return to the ‘capture-sterilise-vaccinate-return’ method. But the new year has been fraught with anxiety with some of the pronouncements made by judges in a hearing on Jan 13 positively antagonistic against the pooches. As my neighbourhood has shown, where there is a will, the issue can be resolved with concerted action. But it should not be falling on the lot of animal lovers – the state has to wake up and do its duty. The bench will assemble again on January 20 - hope it gives a balanced judgement.

Published on January 15, 2026