The Madras High Court Has Ordered The Release Of 22 Stray Dogs From The IIT-M Campus

The Madras High Court on December 9 ordered the release of 22 stray dogs that had been imprisoned in an enclosure on the IIT-M campus since October 2020, following a year of fight by animal rights activists against the IIT-M management. These 22 canines are the only ones known to have survived the university's seizure of 186 stray dogs last year under the guise of vaccination and sterilising. At least 57 of the dogs apprehended had been confirmed deceased. The locations of roughly 110 dogs are now unclear, as the IIT-M administration has refused to release papers relating to these dogs' supposed 'adoptions.' Whereas 19 dogs were sent to a new shelter.

The Greater Chennai Corporation was ordered by the High Court on Thursday to oversee the release of the 22 stray canines now housed in the 'dog park' inside IIT-M. The court ordered GCC to release the healthy dogs in appropriate locations and to treat the canines who were in bad health. However, animal rights groups have had to fight an uphill battle to get to this point, where the court has finally issued an order, since IIT-M has resisted any form of inspection or questioning.

Only 62 canines out of a total of 186 dogs remained in the shelter on November 29 and 30, according to an expert team set up by the Tamil Nadu government to examine the dogs' health condition .

However, by the time the case reached court on December 9, this number had dropped to 22, and IIT has provided no explanation for what happened to the other 40 dogs in just nine days.

IIT-M has also refused to furnish the details of 34 adult dogs it professes were adopted from the 'dog park' despite requests from Health Minister Ma Subramanian and the state Animal Welfare Board.

According to the report, it occurred as the HC was hearing a suit filed by Arun Prasanna, the founder of People for Cattle in India (PFCI), who claimed the enclosures were illegal and demanded that the dogs be released. Moreover, inspecting for this report was not simple. They were also denied entrance to shelter three on the IIT campus. Most importantly, getting inside the shelters, particularly the third shelter, proved tough. During five inspections,it was known that only went to the third shelter once, and that was after a considerable wait. It became interesting that the third shelter is so far apart from the other two.

Meanwhile, there were apparently 87 dogs at the dog enclosure when Health Minister Ma Subramanian inspected it in October. Following this, on October 22, 19 dogs were adopted by committee members due to poor health, keeping 68 dogs on campus.