Do you own a pet dog or love to feed stray dogs? Well, then you are committing an offence if you are not exercising your pet dog regularly or feeding a stray dog near a residence.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, while granting anticipatory bail to three members of a family who had been booked following a dispute over street dogs, has directed that “they shall not feed said stray dogs in the residential locality, as the same would encourage the dogs to roam around in the residential area”.
The petitioners, Mandeep Singh, his wife Balbir Kaur, and their daughter Lovepreet Kaur, were booked for under relevant IPC sections for hurting religious, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation Satnampura police station, Phagwara, Kapurthala district, on the complaint of one Balvir Kaur, who alleged that Mandeep Singh has kept 8-9 stray dogs who often mess up the street and that the complainant and other inhabitants of the village had filed complaints against the family, but to no avail.
Kaur also alleged that the dogs had also destroyed her garlic plants, and on November 24, 2019, Balbir Kaur and Loveleen Kaur came outside the complainant’s house, assaulted her and hurt her religious sentiments.
“The petitioners are further directed that they shall not feed the said stray dogs in the residential locality, as the same would encourage them to roam around in the residential area. However, till any adequate arrangement is made by the municipal authorities for shifting the animals to some dog home and/or any other arrangement is made, the petitioners may feed the dogs at a safe place, which is far from the residential locality,” added Justice Gill.
