Before beef festivals were a thing, Kerala had attracted headlines and “we condemn this” social media posts from across the country for the alarming dog culling the state witnessed as a way to combat the ‘menace’ of strays.
While the hue and cry over it may have subsided, the issue of stray dogs in Kerala is once again in the limelight as the State Government has proposed establishing what it calls ‘dog zoos’ in all 14 districts.
According to media reports, senior advocate V Giri informed a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and MM Shantanagoudar on behalf of the State that the government has framed a policy which requires each district panchayat to acquire 2-3 acres of agricultural land. "The land will be fenced to create stray dog rehabilitation zoos," he said.
Opposing this new proposed policy of stray dog rehabilitation centers, NGOs, Animal Welfare Board and even the centre has revisited the issue of Kerala failing to curb the rising population of strays by adopting the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules.
According to TOI, the state’s representative informed the SC that it was not in favour of implementing the central rules and that it had ‘jurisdiction and power’ to take a policy decision to create dog zoos.
As the matter awaits further hearing on the legal issue on 18 August, we are left to debate on whether a ‘dog zoo’ is the appropriate path to keep man-animal conflict in Kerala in check.
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