PETA India Files in Supreme Court Opposing Funeral Pyre–Sized Cages for Dogs and Out-of-Sight-Out-of-Mind Treatment of Cows, Submitting Roadmaps for Scientific Stray Animal Population Management

For Immediate Release:

06 January 2026

Contact:

Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]
Anushka Yadav;  [email protected]

New Delhi: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) has filed an application before the Supreme Court in the Suo Motu Petition (C) No.5 of 2025: IN RE: ‘CITY HOUNDED BY STRAYS, KIDS PAY PRICE’, urging the Court to reconsider its order for the jailing of dogs from various areas and the rounding up of cows in an out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach and instead issue directions for the humane, lawful, and scientifically grounded management of community animals in accordance with Roadmaps submitted by PETA India.

In its application, PETA India has cautioned the Court against the warehousing of dogs and cows for life in cramped and underfunded facilities, warning that such measures are not only cruel and unscientific but also unworkable at scale, a major public health risk and would divert public resources away from real solutions, including the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, and ultimately worsen human–animal conflict. PETA India has also urged the Court to stay the implementation of the Animal Welfare Board of India’s SOP, which recommends large-scale shelters that allot a mere 20 square feet per dog—roughly the size of a traditional funeral pyre.

A video showing what this would mean for dogs prepared by PETA India, a copy of the letters written to the Hon’ble Prime Minister by PETA India and the Roadmaps are available upon request.

Among other recommendations, PETA India has urged the Supreme Court to reaffirm and strengthen the implementation of the ABC Rules, 2023, rather than focus itself on punitive, knee-jerk displacement measures that have repeatedly failed wherever they have been attempted. PETA India has submitted for the Court’s consideration, two comprehensive, expert-driven roadmaps, which have also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, states and union territories and the Animal Welfare Board of India:

• Roadmap for Humane Management of Community Dogs in India
• Roadmap for Humane Management of Stray Cattle in India

Grounded in the principles of Ahimsa and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, these Roadmaps provide preventive, evidence-based, and legally sound solutions that address root causes, including illegal pet shops and breeders and the abandonment of dogs by impulse-buyers, as well as the abandonment of male calves and cows when their milk production wanes by the dairy sector.

What the Roadmaps Propose:

For community dogs: time-bound, area-wide implementation of the ABC Rules, 2023; expansion via smaller-scale sterilisation and rabies-vaccination capacity; closure of illegal breeders and pet shops; prohibition of foreign dog breeds bred for use in illegal dogfights; protection of community feeders; and strong government incentives for adoption.

For stray cattle: stronger penalties against abandonment; closure of illegal dairies; traceability and accountability mechanisms back to dairies; regulation of gaushalas to prevent breeding and food policies promoting plant-based milk production to reduce dependency on milk from cattle and eventually reducing the cattle numbers.

‘The lifelong incarceration of dogs in spaces the size of a funeral pyre—and the  relocation of stray cattle into already overcrowded and underfunded gaushalas— is not population management—it is cruelty dressed up as policy,’ said Shaurya Agrawal, Policy Associate, PETA India. ‘India already has lawful, science-based frameworks to address stray dog and cow populations that need to be implemented in a time-bound manner.‘

PETA India has emphasised before the Court that confining countless dogs and an ever-growing number of stray cattle is neither feasible nor humane. With an estimated 62 million free-roaming dogs and 5 million stray cattle (and counting due to dairy industry abandonment) in India, there is no infrastructure, funding, or administrative capacity to confine even a fraction of the population without triggering enormous suffering and mass disease outbreaks.

Through its application, PETA India has urged the Supreme Court to ensure that any directions issued in the matter uphold constitutional values, existing animal-protection laws, and India’s long-standing commitment to compassionate coexistence.

PETA India’s motto reads, in part, that ‘animals are not ours to abuse in any way’– opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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