Feeding stray dogs helps to reduce their numbers and the incidence of dog bites. Unfortunately, there are people who do not understand this basic fact and, therefore, frown upon the practice of feeding such dogs

The Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University should take serious note of allegations that, since December 18, 2016, the institution’s security personnel and elements in the administration are preventing people from the neighbourhood from entering the campus and feeding stray dogs. The matter is important. Such exclusion reverses the earlier practice prevailing in the university for feeding stray dogs, undermines the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for canines, and is of dubious legality.

In 2011, the Animal Welfare Board of India, in consultation with the university authorities, identified 15 sites in the campus for feeding stray dogs. The feeding of the latter in these by volunteers from the neighbourhood, some with authorisation letters by the AWBI, largely accounts for the success of the ABC programme for canines in the campus.

Unfortunately, while animal activists believe that five more spots are necessary, the authorities reportedly want to reduce the  total number of feeding spots to two! Such a stand and the reported ban on the entry of people from the neighbourhood to feed and care for stray dogs, means the dismantling of a system functioning since 2011.

The move, besides leaving many dogs, which have become used to be fed, starving, will undermine the implementation of the ABC programme for canines which, as provided by the Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rules 2001 and Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Amendment Rules 2010, is the only legal means for controlling India’s stray dog population. Promulgated under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, the Rules are a part of the law of the land. Under these, stray dogs can be removed from their usual dwelling places only for neutering and vaccination against rabies — and, both done, have to be released where they had been taken from.

The programme has a clear rationale. Dogs are territorial, with those living in one area preventing others from coming in. Hence dogs sterilised, vaccinated and returned to their habitat, keep unsterilised and unvaccinated dogs away from it. Those implementing the ABC programme in a city or district can then turn to another area and similarly sterilise and vaccinate the resident stray dogs there. They can thus systematically cover the entire city or district and proceed to adjoining areas. The stray dog population in these will fall steeply, if not disappear altogether, as the sterilised ones live out their normal life spans.

Feeding stray dogs is critically important to the programme’s implementation for two reasons. It keeps them around the place where they know food will be regularly available. Also, it facilitates their capture (by those who feed) for sterilisation and post-sterilisation annual vaccination against rabies, which is absolutely essential. In his order dated December 18, 2009, in a case pertaining to the feeding of stray dogs, Justice VK Jain of Delhi High Court had said, “The purpose of feeding dogs is to keep them confined to a particular place, so as to subject them to sterilisation/ vaccination/ re-vaccination, as the vaccination does not last for more than one year.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has made it clear that the sterilisation and vaccination programme is the only effective method for controlling stray dog populations. In its Technical Reports Series 931, WHO’s Expert Consultation on Rabies, held in Geneva from October 5 to 8, 2004, identified three practical methods of dog populations management — “movement restriction, habitat control and reproduction control”. As stated in Guidelines for Dog Population Management, issued jointly by WHO and World Society for the Protection of Animals, in 1990, movement control meant preventing restricted or supervised dogs or family dogs from cutting loose to either mate or merge into the stray dog population.

As for habitat control, each habitat has a specific carrying capacity for each species, including higher vertebrates like dogs, determined by the “availability, distribution and quality of resources (shelter, food, water) for the species concerned”. Effective removal and management of garbage, for example, would eliminate an important source of food for stray dogs. The guidelines further state that the only way of ensuring reproduction control is a serious, nationwide implementation of the ABC programme.

The Technical Report Series 931 says, “Since 1960s, ABC programmes coupled with rabies vaccination have been advocated as a method to control urban street male and female dog populations and ultimately human rabies in Asia.” It further states, “Culling of dogs during [the implementation of] these programmes may be counterproductive as sterilised, vaccinated dogs may be destroyed.”

As for the JNU order’s legality, the Delhi High Court’s orders dated December 18, 2009, and February 4, 2010, provide for feeding stray dogs. Justice VK Jain’s order dated December 18, 2009, had stated that in each Delhi colony the AWBI, in consultation with the residents welfare association, area SHO and animal welfare organisations working in that area, should identify spots/sites most suitable for feeding stray dogs. It had also stated, “In the meantime, Delhi Police will ensure that no harm is caused to the volunteers of Animal Welfare Organisations feeding stray dogs in those localities provided that they feed them only during hours specified by the Animal Welfare Board and provided further that as soon as suitable sites for feeding these dogs are identified, those organisations will feed dogs only in the identified sites and at hours specified by the Animal Welfare Board.” He had also stated, “Feeding dogs makes them friendly and easier to handle, and citizens are free to feed dogs in areas to be decided by the Animal Welfare Board.”

JNU has a large number of stray dogs and there have been cases of dog bites warranting concern. Their numbers, however, can only be reduced substantially through rigorous implementation of the canine animal birth control programme, which would also lower their aggression levels. Since sterilised bitches do not come on heat, fights among dogs over bitches, which raise their aggression levels, do not occur during mating seasons, when they are most frequent. This drastically reduces the number of instances in which a higher level of aggression leads to a greater intolerance of provocation and biting of people.

Also, since sterilised bitches do not have litters, the rise in their aggression level that occurs when they are guarding their puppies against threats-which are many-do not occur. Finally, while a hungry dog can be irritable and aggressive, a well-fed canine is more likely to be at peace with itself and its environment.

(The writer is Consultant Editor, The Pioneer, and an author)