Supreme Court takes on board Kannur local body’s plea to euthanise ‘dangerous’ stray dogs

The Supreme Court on June 21, 2023 urgently took on board a plea by Kannur district panchayat in Kerala to euthanise “suspected rabid” and “extremely dangerous” stray dogs.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 urgently took on board a plea by Kannur district panchayat in Kerala to euthanise “suspected rabid” and “extremely dangerous” stray dogs.

A Vacation Bench of Justices Surya Kant and M.M. Sundresh issued formal notice and listed the case for hearing on July 12.

The panchayat had moved the Supreme Court shortly after a 11-yr-old autistic child was allegedly “mauled to death” by a pack of stray dogs in Kannur on June 11. The panchayat which filed the petition through its president PP Divya, represented by advocate Subhash Chandran KR, said it was “horrified” by the incident.

“This is a very unfortunate incident… The matter regarding stray dogs has been pending in this court since 2015…” the Bench said.

Respondents, who intervened in the mentioning by Mr. Chandran, said they were not given due notice of the petition filed by the panchayat. They needed to file a response.

“There is a trend of killing dogs in Kerala… This is a serious problem,” advocate Jasmine Damkewala, for the respondents in the case, submitted.

The Bench directed them to file their response in court by July 7 and listed the petition along with other connected cases on July 12.