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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

14/08/25 10:08 AM IST

ABC of Sterilisation

In News 
  • While asking the authorities to shift Delhi’s stray dogs to shelters, the Supreme Court found it “unreasonable and absurd” that, under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) program, sterilised dogs are returned to the streets they were picked up from.
About Sterilisation 
  • To bring down a population through sterilisation of individuals, the females are the principal targets.
  • Because anything short of 100% success in neutering males potentially leaves open the window for all fertile females getting productive.
  • Spaying females is also the preferred approach because neutering impacts males behaviorally — turning docile is not a good survival option in the wild. But when it comes to street dogs, reducing aggression in males helps reduce conflict. That is why ABC programs for dogs target both females and males.
  • While all dogs cannot be sterilised at one go, the efficacy of any ABC drive depends on the outcome of the race between volume and time.
  • The thumb rule: at least two-third (ideally 70%) of a population should be sterilised within a year. And this is where returning sterilised dogs to streets becomes all important.
  • The ABC program also seeks returning sterilised dogs to streets to maintain their social order and cohesion.
  • But, primarily, returning sterilised dogs to streets ensures that potentially productive space remains under unproductive occupation.
  • This is absolutely vital in the initial months of an ABC drive as it makes spatial progress incrementally.
Implication of the SC orders 
  • SC asked them to make shelters to house stray dogs, and pick up 5-6,000 from vulnerable areas in the next six to eight weeks.
  • Since the Delhi government does not have any shelter of its own, the implementation of the court’s order may take longer.
  • While the government has hospitals, around two dozen dog shelters, with a combined capacity of less than 3,000, are all run by NGOs.
  • Some are also concerned that housing thousands of unrelated dogs together may cause stress and anxiety.
  • There are standard housing protocols in individual cages with physical and visual barriers to ease aggression.
  • But dogs are inherently social animals — forming packs, establishing hierarchies and learning from one another — not suited for captivity.
Areas of Concerns 
  • In all cities, neighbourhood good samaritans feed stray dogs on the streets outside their homes or workplaces. This has the same effect as petting, and turns stray dogs territorial and aggressive.
  • Such feeding has also created monsters of monkeys in many parts of India. Over the decades, governments cutting across party lines have sponsored the feeding of stray dogs by various organisations.
  • In The Ecology of Stray Dogs: A Study of Free-ranging Urban Animals (1973), Professor Alan Beck wrote: “Loose or straying pets and stray (feral) dogs are different.
  • True stray dogs form somewhat stable packs… are more active at night and cautious about people. In general, straying pets have smaller home ranges and [are] active when people are.”
  • This is why abandoned or proxy pet dogs on the street are more likely to be aggressive towards people who do not feed or pet them.
Source- Indian Express 

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