NEW DELHI: Coming down heavily on animal and dog lovers, the Supreme Court on Monday asked them if they would be able to “bring back children” who fell prey to rabies and directed the removal of all strays from Delhi-NCR streets.The suo motu case hearing over dog bite instances also saw a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan refuse to entertain any of their intervention applications, calling the situation in the national capital region “extremely grim”.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta during the hearing had sought “something to be done” against the “menace of stray dog bites”.”We can’t sacrifice our children merely because few individuals feel that they are animal lovers or something,” he said.The top court said the first and foremost step was to round up strays from all localities, including localities situated on the outskirts of city, and relocate them to a far-off place.The authorities in Delhi-NCR were accordingly ordered to pick up stray dogs, sterilise and immunise them and keep them at dog shelters.When an advocate appearing for an animal welfare activist said animal birth control centres were already set up in Delhi and just needed to be made functional, Justice Pardiwala said nothing was working and added, “This is a time to act. All these animal activists, all these so called lovers, will they be able to bring back all those children who have fallen prey to rabies? Will they put life back to those children?”When the lawyer said the court should clarify that its directions would not affect pet dogs, the bench observed, “Your stray dog should not overnight become a pet dog.”The bench said there was a need to launch a drive with “some force” to round up all stray dogs.”You should not find a single stray dog going around anywhere in any locality in the city or on the outskirts,” it said.Mehta said sterilisation could prevent further regeneration of dogs but it does not take away the power of dog to give rabies.”Rabies has no cure in medicine and we have seen in YouTube videos children dying and parents crying helplessly because the doctors also say we have no cure,” he said.
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