Return community dogs to their spots: Activists to Delhi’s MCD

On Friday, the Congress posted a video on X released by PFA, which purportedly shows animal catchers removing dogs in an inhumane manner

Activists and animal rights organisations on Sunday demanded that the community dogs that were removed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) from areas around the venues of the G20 Summit be returned to their original locations and be released in an orderly manner. They also said they plan to hold a protest at MCD’s Civic Centre on Monday, demanding a medical check-up of the dogs.

A screengrab from a video released by the Congress shows dogs being captured in an inhumane manner. (HT Photo)

“MCD should ensure that dogs are released with the coordination of feeders and caregivers. Before releasing the dogs, a meeting with all the feeders should be held to plan the orderly release,” said Sanjay Mohapatra, president of NGO House of Stray Animals.

HT reached out to MCD seeking comments, but officials did not respond.

Community dogs are territorial, serve as guard dogs, and keep the rodent population down. These dogs can’t be exterminated or simply shipped out; there are legal restrictions against both. According to guidelines laid down by the Animal Welfare Board of India and Prevention of Cruelty (Animal Birth Control) Rules, 2023, a civic body can pick up dogs to sterilise them, but after surgery and recovery, they must be released in the same area.

However, the civic body quietly began relocating street dogs — including those already sterilised — on September 1. Mayor Shelly Oberoi, in an interview with HT on September 5, said that MCD has passed no order to relocate street dogs, and said she will order a probe if any dogs were being picked up.

House of Stray Animals has written to municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, demanding that such drives are not carried out in the run up to any future events. Mohapatra said they have also filed Right to Information (RTI) queries with MCD seeking to get documents related to any such drive under which the dogs were picked up ahead of the G20 Summit.

To be sure, MCD routinely relocates community dogs around key areas like Rajghat during VIP movement, but the relocation period usually lasts only a day or two.

Gaurav Dar from People For Animals (PFA), said his NGO is coordinating with animal birth control (ABC) centres to start tagging the captured community dogs so that they can be released in the same areas as they were picked up from. “We have coordinated with dog feeders and caretakers and asked them to help in the identification of these dogs so that there is no mix-up. We have received consent from the doctors running some of these units and the process will start on Monday,” Dar said.

Earlier, on Friday, the Congress posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) released by PFA, which purportedly shows animal catchers removing dogs in an inhumane manner.

MCD on Saturday claimed the dogs were only picked up on “urgent need basis”, and that no harm was caused to any of the animals.