Bombay HC bats for feeding stray dogs, cautions against cruelty to animals

Mumbai: Adopting a humane touch, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday frowned at hatred and cruelty to stray dogs terming it as unacceptable from persons of civil society and cautioned that “such cruelty would be against the Constitutional ethos and statutory provisions”.
A division bench of Justices Girish Kulkarni and R.N. Laddha was hearing a petition filed by a dog-lover of a Mumbai cooperative housing society alleging cruelty to 18 stray dogs as its managing committee was not ready to provide a designated feeding spot to feed them and threatened to hire bouncers to restrain her.
The bench cited the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Animal Birth Control Rules, and said it would be an obligation of all the society members to follow them and to avoid causing any harassment or cruelty to the animals or those wanting to care for them.
It also directed the society management to inform them of the designated (feeding) spot as well as other welfare measures for the dogs, by April 6, when the matter would be heard again.
The directions came in a petition, filed through advocate Nishad Nevgi, by animal lover, Paromita Purthan, living in RNA Royale Park CHS, Kandivali west, where she was feeding 18 stray canines.
Purthan informed the court of a Managing Committee resolution of November 13, 2022 allowing feeding the dogs at a specified place but the society had not allotted the feeding spot in the huge society complex.