New Delhi, India – Hundreds of animal advocates, including children and volunteers from across India, gathered at Jantar Mantar today to call on the Supreme Court to protect the country’s street dogs. The peaceful demonstration took place ahead of a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for January 5 regarding a recent order on street dog management.

Participants urged the court to review and recall what they described as an “impractical” and “inhumane” directive requiring the removal of street dogs from public spaces. They advocated instead for humane, lawful, and evidence-based population management.

In November 2025, a three-judge Supreme Court bench ordered street dogs removed from public institutions such as schools, hospitals, and transport hubs. The ruling mandated capture, sterilization, vaccination, and permanent relocation to shelters rather than returning dogs to their original territories. Animal protection groups filed a petition seeking to overturn the order, which is set for hearing later this week.

Speakers highlighted that mass removal or relocation of street dogs has repeatedly failed. Territorial vacuums are quickly filled by unvaccinated and unsterilized dogs from other areas, increasing conflict and public safety risks. They stressed that the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2001 (updated 2023), which focus on sterilization and vaccination, remain the only lawful and sustainable solution.

Keren Nazareth, senior director at Humane World for Animals India, said: “Removing street dogs may seem like a quick fix, but in the long term it would be an ineffective disaster. Warehousing millions of dogs in inadequate shelters for their lifetime would also make it a very cruel disaster indeed.” She urged intelligent, nuanced solutions that uphold the law and decades of rabies eradication and coexistence efforts.

Humane World for Animals India has sterilized and vaccinated more than 400,000 street dogs across major cities since 2013, promoting humane population management and peaceful human-animal coexistence.

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