Actor and animal rights advocate Raveena Tandon has strongly criticised the Supreme Court's recent verdict ordering the relocation of stray dogs to shelters in Delhi-NCR.
Calling the move "impossible to implement" and "a knee-jerk reaction", Raveena Tandon told NDTV that this decision could endanger the lives of both vaccinated and unvaccinated dogs, as well as sick and healthy ones, by putting them all together without proper segregation.
"This is like extermination. This is ridiculous. For the most loving beings on this planet, human beings have gone mad in their selfish greed to own everything. Instead of addressing the root cause, they're targeting the animals," she said, expressing deep concern over the welfare of the animals.
Raveena Tandon stressed that the failure lies with local municipal bodies and the poor execution of the sterilisation and vaccination programmes launched by the government years ago.
"If these had been implemented in a proper and organised manner, we wouldn't have reached this point. Many countries have tried such mass relocation before, and it has failed. This won't work either," she asserted.
The actor also drew a sharp comparison with other public safety lapses.
She added, "Have a look at the statistics. All the contractors for who bridges have fallen and new cracks and potholes have emerged. How many people have died because of that? Have they rounded up those contractors and arrested them? What are they talking about? I think in 2022, there were about 25 dog bites. And they were about more than 25,000 deaths in ratio because of lapses in implementing proper roads and potholes. So why are these people not being arrested. Why hasn't that happened?"
Raveena Tandon further questioned, "You're talking about dogs, I come back to the same solution of it that they should have been proper implementation. Why are those who have not implemented this scheme of sterilisation and vaccination being held accountable? Why remove it on animals?"
Raveena demanded that the government focus on a strong, continuous vaccination and sterilisation drive rather than removing all dogs from the streets.
"If anything, only sick dogs should be taken off the roads, and every local body must be held accountable for the lapses in implementing the schemes already in place," she said.
Calling for the order to be rolled back, Raveena Tandon reiterated that the real solution lies in accountability, proper planning, and humane action, not blanket relocation.
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