Govt notifies new animal birth control rules to deal with menace of stray dogs

NEW DELHI: Amid growing incidence of human-stray dog conflicts that result in human casualties, the Centre has asked states to “effectively” implement the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, which were notified last month, saying municipal corporations need to implement the rules along with anti-rabies programmes.
The move comes in the backdrop of the incident where an elderly person was mauled to death by six-seven stray dogs in a park inside the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus last week. It was, however, not the only such recent incident. In March, a family in southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj area lost their two sons, aged seven and five, within a gap of two days. Both the children were mauled to death by stray dogs.

“By effective implementation of these Rules, the animal birth control programme can be conducted by local bodies which will help in reducing the stray dog population,” said the ministry of animal husbandry while referring to the new ABC Rules and the Centre’s communication to states on Tuesday.
"The Animal Birth Control Rules 2001 laid down the law for the only viable dog population management mechanism but its implementation was scanty and monitoring was altogether absent over two decades. The ABC Rules 2023 not only bridges these gaps effectively but also addresses new challenges such as cat population management and resolution of conflicts," said Gauri Maulekhi, animal welfare expert.

Other experts too pitched for proper implementation of the ABC Rules. "The newly passed ABC Rules 2023 assume even greater significance in the context of incidents of conflict between human beings and stray dogs being reported. We need to create collective will in municipal corporations and gram panchayats across the country to implement the animal birth control programme on a mass scale consistently. This is the only way to manage dog populations and keep down conflict," said Bharati Ramachandran, CEO, Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO).

Asked how implementation of the ABC Rules could prevent the AMU or the Vasant Kunj kinds of incidents, Maulekhi said, "Aggression in dogs is due to specific hormonal or environmental reasons. Neutering them not only controls population growth but also reduces aggression - female dogs don’t need to protect their litter and males don’t get into mating fights. Incidents of conflict are the highest in places where the ABC programme has not been initiated and dogs are regularly killed or relocated from their territories causing them to become more hostile."
The 2023 Rules, superseding the ABC (Dog) Rules, 2001, say that the birth control programmes for sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs are to be carried out by the respective local bodies/ municipalities/ municipal corporations and panchayats.