Claim
The Supreme Court said that if stray dogs attack people, then those who feed the dogs can be held responsible. The court said that those who regularly feed and feed stray dogs can also be given the responsibility of getting the dogs vaccinated.
Rating
Explanation
After an urgent mention was made on 5th September 2022 due to the death of a 12-year-old girl in Kerala as a result of a dog bite, Supreme Court agreed to list the case for 9th September 2022.
On the day of the hearing, several news outlets published a news article claiming that Supreme Court had said that people feeding stray dogs will be held responsible if the dogs attack people and they have to take responsibility for vaccinating the dog.
The Supreme Court has observed that those who feed stray #dogs could be held liable if the canines attack people. The apex court also said that such people should be made responsible for #vaccination of stray dogs. pic.twitter.com/khbhlvljbe
— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) September 10, 2022
The #SupremeCourt on Friday suggested that people who habitually feed stray dogs can be made responsible for their vaccination and held liable to bear the costs if the animals they care for attack innocent people.https://t.co/ju7a2MboJB
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) September 9, 2022
This was virally shared on social media and in the following days, reportedly some even faced opposition from people citing the news while trying to feed the stray dogs.
What’s the truth?
On 9th September 2022, the advocate appearing from Kerala had requested the Court to hold people feeding stray dogs to be responsible if the dogs attacked people and they should be also made responsible for vaccinating the dogs. However, this pleading from the counsel was wrongly published in the news by several news organizations following an article from a website that updates the court proceedings. After realizing their mistake, the news website took down the article forcing several news outlets to remove their article too.
The Hindu tweeted on 9th September 2022 regarding this with a link to their article about Supreme Court but when we tried to follow the link, we could find that the article was taken down. But the tweet is still live at the time of writing this article.
Times Now tweeted regarding the same on 13th September with a link and the article is still live on their website.
BJP MP Maneka Gandhi called the news articles from various news sites as fake and clarified that she was there in the Court when the incident took place. She also pointed out that it was indeed the advocate who made these statements and accused a reporter from the “Live Law” website to have published the article wrongly and later it was taken down by its Editor when they realized their mistake.
FAKE NEWS : “Those who feed stray dogs will be held liable if dogs attack : supreme court order”
Maneka Gandhi, Member of Loksabha, animal rights activist, and environmentalist has given clarification on the same.
We request everyone to continue to feed stray animals 🙏. pic.twitter.com/2AWptngja6
— BELAGAVI INFRA.co.in (@Belagavi_infra) September 10, 2022
An article regarding this is also published on the Banglore Mirror website clarifying that the Supreme Court did not observe that people who feed stray dogs would be held responsible if the dogs attack humans.
Conclusion
The news articles and various social media posts claiming that Supreme Court said people who are feeding stray dogs would be held responsible if the dogs attack humans and also they would be held responsible for vaccinating the dogs are false. Supreme Court had made no such observations and they were the pleading argument from the advocate who had filed this case which was wrongly circulated as statements made by the Judges of the Court.
