The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench has suspended operation of a tender notice issued by the Rawalpindi District Government inviting bids for ‘birth control’ of stray dogs in the city. According to the advertisement, the District Government had sought sealed bids for catching around 5,200 stray dogs from various parts of the city and then getting them ‘vaccinated’ from the Livestock Department. Interestingly, the district government has allocated PKR 10.4 million for the entire operation i.e catching, vaccinating and health examination, meaning thereby only PKR 2,000 will be spent on each dog.
Animal rights activist, Altamush Saeed in a public interest litigation challenged the tender notice and pleaded before the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench that it was not possible to vaccinate such a large number of animals for such a small amount. The tender notice in fact is a covert effort to cull stray dogs, which violates Punjab’s Animal Birth Control Policy 2021, he held before the court. The said policy mandates vaccination and sterilization as humane population control measures, rather than culling, the petition by Altamush Saeed and co-petitioners Anila Umar and Ahmed Shoaib said.
Altamush Saeed submitted before the court that he has witnessed inhuman and cruel practice of shooting and poisoning of stray dogs being undertaken by the officials of the municipal department of the district government. In the past, he filed a number of applications before the concerned departments and officials to stop unnecessary killing of innocent animals/dogs. The petitioner submitted that the government might make alternative arrangements or adopt a sensible mechanism to reduce to reduce the increase in the number of cases of dog bite, etc.
The Punjab Animal Health Act 2019 also holds the government responsible to prevent the act of cruelty to animals including, dogs. The petition has also referred to the landmark decision by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) titled ‘IWMB vs Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad’ in which for the first-time natural rights of animals were linked with the Article 9 of the Constitution (Right to Life) read with Article 14 (Right to Dignity).
The state counsel in response to the petition, sought time to obtain instructions from the relevant quarters. LHC Justice Jawad Hassan while suspending the district government’s tender mentioned that the petitioner while admitting the petition suspended the operation of the Pindi district government’s tender notice and directed the senior officers to be present on the next date of hearing. While talking to media after the hearing, Altamush Saeed said it was a groundbreaking order and would help the rights activists protecting animals in accordance with the spirit of the IHC judgment.
Based on the LHC order, we have succeeded in stopping the culling of thousands of stray dogs in Faisalabad and Jhang also, he said and hoped soon a policy decision would be made at the provincial level to adopt alternative measures and ban the culling permanently.
