lawyer Prashant Bhushan has threatened to file contempt petition against the Kerala Government over the State Government’s proposed move to cull stray dogs.
In a letter written by Bhushan to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the activist lawyer said that any such move will be in violation of the Supreme Court order, which has banned culling and asked State authorities to implement birth control measures to curb the stray dog menace.
The letter comes in the wake of announcements made by two State Ministers — local Self Government Minister KT Jaleel and Animal Husbandry Ministry K Raju — who indicated that the State will shortly undertake culling of stray dogs following increased instances of dog bite cases across the State.
Opposing such move by the Kerala Government, Bhushan cited the November 18, 2015 order passed by a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra where the justifiability of dog culling is yet to be decided. Till such time, the court has stayed any such action by State Governments, while seeking information on steps taken by the municipal authorities under the Animal Birth Control Rules and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Bhushan in his letter warned the Chief Minister, “if any such action like culling is taken by your Government then we will be forced to take out a contempt petition in the Supreme Court with urgent mentioning.” It said that any such move amounted to contempt of the apex court’s order and went against the letter of law contained in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Further, the letter accused the State Government of “whipping up hysteria” against stray dogs as every day there is a news item involving stray dog bites. In one such instance where an aged woman was reportedly bitten multiple times by a stray dog in Kerala, Bhushan said that on verification with the concerned reporter, it turned out to be a story based on hearsay.
The Supreme Court in its November 2015 order had said, “There can be no trace of doubt that there has to be compassion for dogs and they should not be killed in an indiscriminate manner, but indubitably the lives of the human beings are also to be saved and one should not suffer due to dog bite because of administrative lapse.”