ABC sterilisation only solution, plan for shelters is flawed

Time of India

3 days ago

It's early morning in a quiet Gurgaon neighbourhood. Kavita, a 40-year-old homemaker, pauses before stepping out for her walk. At a corner, a few street dogs are barking — not aggressively, just exchanging their usual "street chatter".
Yet her heart races. She has feared dogs since she was bombarded with alarming stories.
She's far from alone. Relentless coverage filled with stock images of snarling dogs has stoked public panic, often towards harmless animals that are, by nature, loyal and affectionate.
The fallout has been serious. Recently, based on an unverified report of rabies, Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance. Without any meaningful discussion or ground-level consultation, it has now given an unprecedented order directing municipalities to move all street dogs into shelters. The order ignores critical realities:
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n No census has been conducted.
We don't know how many dogs we're talking about.
n There is no infrastructure. NCR doesn't have municipal dog shelters. So, where will they be sent?
n There is no budget. No land, plan, or funding has been earmarked for such facilities.
n There is no trained manpower. Without skilled shelter staff, who will manage these animals?
The costs are staggering. At an average of Rs 2,500 per dog per month, even a conservative estimate of 10 lakh street dogs would mean a recurring bill of Rs 250 crore every month.
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By contrast, the current Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme—which humanely sterilises and vaccinates street dogs—costs roughly Rs 1,000 per dog, once. This approach has been delivering measurable results: rabies cases have dropped from 20,000 annually to just 54 nationwide.
The real work happens quietly, often before dawn.
Foot Soldiers of Humane Control
Meet Meenakshi — a soft-spoken yet relentless volunteer from Gurgaon's Janm Foundation.
While most people sleep, she's coordinating WhatsApp groups of animal lovers, mapping dog locations, organising sterilisation drives, ensuring vaccinations and rushing injured strays to veterinary hospitals. This isn't just compassion — it's public service.
She's one of countless volunteers across India who operate as an unofficial civic bridge—reducing animal suffering, preventing unchecked breeding and easing tensions between residents and dogs.
Sterilisation is not merely an animal welfare measure but a scientifically proven population control method. The ABC Rules under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act outline how humane sterilisation, coupled with vaccination, steadily reduces dog populations. In Jaipur, a decade-long ABC programme cut the population from 40,000 to 25,000 while human rabies deaths fell to almost zero.
In Gurgaon alone, Meenakshi's network sterilises over 20 dogs each month.
The returned dogs bear a notched ear — a quiet sign they're vaccinated, non-breeding and non-aggressive. In many colonies, complaints have dropped sharply, barking has reduced and no rabies cases have been reported for years.
Dogs that are sterilised and returned become territorial protectors, preventing unvaccinated outsiders from entering the area — a vital defence against both disease and population surges.
Shelters Pose Public Health Risk
The Supreme Court's shelter mandate may sound neat on paper, but it's a public health risk in the making. Overcrowded shelters are breeding grounds for zoonotic diseases—those that spread between animals and humans.
In 2023, a leptospirosis outbreak at a Tamil Nadu shelter infected workers and nearby livestock. Kerala's 2022 government report flagged rising mange, fungal infections and tick-borne diseases in state-run shelters.
Even Mumbai's BMC shelters have faced criticism for parvovirus and distemper outbreaks.
Removing dogs en masse also triggers the "vacuum effect" -- when territorial dogs are removed, unsterilised newcomers flood in, often unvaccinated and more aggressive. This is well documented globally, including in 'The Lancet Planetary Health'.
Why Community Care Works
Well-fed, cared-for dogs are calmer, less aggressive and more predictable.
Feeding stations, sterilisation and vaccination turn them into community assets—guardians rather than threats.
Kavita, who once avoided her colony's dogs, now knows them by name and walks past them without fear. "They don't scare me anymore," she says. "They're part of the neighbourhood."
At a time when India faces rising pet abandonment and urban dog-human conflicts, grassroots rescuers offer a decentralised, humane and cost-effective model that protects both people and animals.
The Way Forward
Instead of dismantling these systems, we must strengthen them. Every sterilised dog, every vaccinated pup and every rescued stray represents one less public health risk and one more step towards peaceful coexistence.
Condemning healthy, harmless animals to captivity out of fear is not a solution—it's surrendering to misinformation. Across India, unsung heroes like Meenakshi are showing us a better way: facts over fear, compassion over cruelty and cohabitation over conflict.
(Ambika Shukla is Trustee, People For Animals)
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