Priyanka Singh
Published on: September 18, 2022 at 16:27 IST
In the hearing of a Suo Motu PIL on Friday, Kerala High Court directed the Government hospitals to dispense free medical care for dog bites alongside free vaccines until the State builds an alternative mechanism to deal with the stray dog issue.
The division bench comprising of Justices A.K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P directed that the dogs suspected of being rabid are to be tranquilized and contained.
Nevertheless, the Court clarified that the provision shall be removed once a replaceable plan is formulated by the State.
The State Police had issued Circular while urging the citizens to not take laws into their own hands, pursuing the previous order passed on Wednesday.
In the previous order, the Court proactively directed that it would conduct weekly hearings in order to track the implementation of steps to be taken to identify, contain and remove aggressive dogs from public places.
Advocate Vikram Chandravanshi appearing for the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) raised concern over the behavior of the citizens against aggressive dogs, such as poisoning and killing them.
With regards to Kudumbashree’s application to AWBI suggesting Animal Birth Control (ABC) procedures, the Board submitted to be actively looking through the suggestion and doing the needful.
The suo motu case of PIL was initiated in July, 2021 in relation to the inhumane killing of Bruno, a pet Labrador, by three minors on the Adimalathura beach in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Court, thus, named the case as “In Re: Bruno (Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation Proceedings initiated by the High Court in the matter of executive and legislative inaction of the State Government in the matter of Protection of Animal Rights)”.