The Supreme Court tweaked its August 11 order of relocation of stray dogs, saying the canines will be released after sterilisation and won’t be kept in shelters, given they are not rabid or “aggressive”. Author Twinkle Khanna has now shared her take on the news as well as the protests that took place in light of the August 11 order against the removal of stray dogs.

What Twinkle said on SC order

In her latest The Times of India column, Twinkle began by mentioning how thw SC order was ‘personal’ to her. She wrote, “For over a fortnight, my feed has been buzzing about the Supreme Court’s order to remove thousands of stray dogs from Delhi streets, citing a rise in rabies cases. Our building, too, has a few strays that have been unofficially adopted. It started with a little tawny pup that we named Coco and then encompassed all her children over the years. The dogs are vaccinated, but we haven’t sterilised them. The threat of them being taken away and locked up made it more personal than something seen through a phone screen.”

‘Morality tastes better when served with a McDonald’s hamburger’

Twinkle then added that the protests against the order showcased a ‘hypocrisy’ in human nature. She continued, “On the flip side, the protests against removal of strays also revealed an inherent hypocrisy prevalent in human nature, including mine. I applaud the protesters who show up with placards, braving downpours and getting dragged through the mud by the police. But there are also an infinite number of armchair protestors who seem to spend their lunch break posting about the strays between bites of mutton biryani. We thrive on selective empathy. Either all life is precious, or none is, but morality tastes better when served with a McDonald’s hamburger. Still, there has to be a middle path. Sterilisation and vaccination protect both people and strays. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has modified its previous order. Blanket removal of the dogs was, at best, convenience turned into policy.”

On August 11, a bench of Justices Pardiwala and R Mahadevan took a stern view of the stray dog problem 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. In the last few days, multiple protests have been held in the city, demanding that the SC’s order be withdrawn.

The Supreme Court then clarified that the dogs must be released back after sterilisation and immunisation, except those infected with rabies or exhibiting aggressive behaviour.