Following media reports of a boy being mauled by a pack of stray dogs, the Supreme Court’s two-member bench on August 11 suo motu ordered removal of stray dogs from Delhi’s streets.

Predictably, the order attracted the ire of animal activists and the orchestrated campaign by them on social media, among others, made the apex court relent in favour of a three-member bench which is all set to hear the matter afresh from August 14.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) relented, apparently discarding the wishes of the judges who heard the matter in the run-up to the August 10 edict and read the Riot Act to those obstructing its execution.

As it is, Delhi has a couple of sterilisation centres, which are by no means rescue centers as known in the Western world, particularly in the US. To be sure, the national capital region is unequal to the gargantuan task of locating as many as two lakh stray dogs in animal centres, but there is no gainsaying the fact that stray dogs menace Indian streets. Only the squeamish would equate human lives with the lives of stray dogs and rationalise such equality with quixotic arguments like “though they menace the streets, they also play the role of scavengers!"

Returning the sterilised dogs to streets is no answer as the........

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