In cities across the country, the feral animals are both loved and feared. The judges are forging into intensely emotional territory by going after the ones in the capital.

Supreme Court's directions were given in a case the top court took up suo motu on July 28 after what it said was a “very disturbing and alarming” newspaper report about the death of a six-year-old girl due to rabies.

Laws such as the PCA Act, 1960, and the ABC Rules, 2023, form the cornerstone of dog protection in India. These rules ban the killing of healthy stray dogs, allowing euthanasia only in cases where a vet confirms a dog is terminally sick or mortally injured.