Why Doesn't India Know What To Do With Its Stray Dogs?
5/29/202635 min
India has 80 million stray dogs and accounts for 30 percent of the world's rabies deaths. The Supreme Court's latest judgment proposes capturing and relocating strays from schools, hospitals, religious and tourism sites but the experts on this episode argue it may do more harm than the problem it set out to solve. Host Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Gauri Maulekhi, Trustee of People for Animals, Alokparna Sengupta, Managing Director of Humane World for Animals India, and Luke Gamble, Founder and CEO of Mission Rabies, on why India's animal birth control programme collapsed despite 25 years of policy, what Malawi's rabies elimination model teaches us about structural solutions, and whether a judgment meant to protect citizens is quietly pushing India toward a less humane future.
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First 90 secondsAnirban Chaudhuri· Host0:00
[instrumental music] There are an estimated seventy-five to eighty million dogs on India's streets. [instrumental music] Children are attacked outside school gates. Patients are mauled inside hospital campuses. And yet, for over two decades, the law that was meant to fix this, the Animal Birth Control Rules, has existed largely on paper, ignored by municipalities, starved of funds, and unsupported by the very government that mandated it. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of India passed a sweeping judgment directing that stray dogs be removed from schools, hospitals, railway stations, sports complexes, and remarkably, religious and tourism sites. In its judgment, the Supreme Court said they should be relocated to shelters that frankly do not exist. The court meant well. The problem is very real. But today we are going to ask, does this judgment actually protect dogs or people, or does it set us back by years and lead us towards a less humane future? [instrumental music] Listen on, it's Friday the 29th of May.