Ram Gopal Varma brings up stray dog attacks in rant against dog lovers protesting SC order: 'Dead children don’t count?

Ram Gopal Varma asked "dog lovers" to shower love on the animals “in your own homes, in your luxury bungalows, in your manicured lawns.”

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has weighed in after a section of the people, including celebrities, protested against the Supreme Court's recent order to move all stray dogs in Delhi-NCR to shelters within eight weeks. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Ram Gopal raised the issue of children getting attacked by street dogs.

Ram Gopal Varma talked about stray dogs and called them a menace to the poor.

Ram Gopal Varma talks about ‘menace’ of stray dogs

RGV asked "dog lovers" to shower love on the animals "in your own homes, in your luxury bungalows, in your manicured lawns." He added that "dog menace" exists not in lavish villas but in the streets and slums. He questioned people's compassion for small children being attacked.

His note read, "Hey dog lovers. All you Dog lovers are shouting hoarse about the injustice to dogs regarding the Supreme Court’s order. But where were they when a four-year-old child was brutally killed in broad daylight on the streets ..Likewise, thousands get attacked every year. Where was your compassion then? Or is compassion reserved only for those with wagging tails while dead children don’t count?"

"And yes, there is nothing wrong with loving dogs. I love them too. But love your dogs in your own homes, in your luxury bungalows, in your manicured lawns. Love your imported Labradors, your pedigreed Huskies, your high-breed pets bought from breeders and hire staff to look after them," he added.

RGV shares how start dogs hurt the poor

Ram Gopal said that the dog menace haunts the poor. "But the truth is this: the dog menace does not exist in your lavish villas. It prowls in the streets and slums. It stalks the alleys where the poor live, where children play barefoot, where no gates or fences protect them. While the privileged stroke their glossy pets, the powerless are left to tend to the wounded and bury their loved ones," he wrote.

"You talk about dog rights. Fine. But what about the child’s rights? The right to live. The right of his parents to see him grow. Do those rights vanish because you love dogs? Do those rights matter less than your Instagram photos of you cuddling your own pedigreed pets?" he asked.

RGV asks people to adopt stray dogs

He asked those who love dogs should adopt them. "Here is the truth you don’t want to hear: compassion without balance is injustice. If you truly love dogs, then adopt them, feed them, and protect them in your secure homes. Or force the government to come up with solutions. But don’t burden the streets with your love, where it turns into the death of someone else’s child. The poor should not pay with their blood for the sentimental indulgence of the rich. And realise this truth that a society that values the life of a stray dog over the life of a child has already lost its humanity," concluded his note.

What was SC order on stray dogs

On August 11, a bench of Justices Pardiwala and R Mahadevan took a stern view of the stray dog menace and ordered the Delhi-NCR to start removing stray dogs from all localities and house them in dedicated dog shelters to be set up by civic authorities.

It said that all localities should be made free of stray dogs and there should not be any compromise, while making it clear that no captured animal will be released back on the streets. It also ordered contempt proceedings against any individual or organisation that attempts to obstruct the authorities from carrying out the capture drive.