The number of stray dogs worldwide has been estimated between 200 and 600 million. Europe alone is estimated to have 100 million street dogs. According to Bill Garrett, the Executive Director of the Atlanta Humane Society, there are at least 5 times more homeless animals than homeless people.
When certain stray dogs bite humans, they infect those people with rabies, a viral disease that causes acute inflammation of the brain. Each year, more than 15 million people are treated with a post-bite rabies vaccination, while 55,000 people die of rabies. 95% of rabies cases occur in Asia and Africa, and 99% of rabies transmissions to humans are caused by dogs.





As per Indian law, street dogs cannot be beaten, killed or driven away or displaced or dislocated, they can only be sterilized in the manner envisaged in the The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001  enacted under the Indian Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (A Central Act), vaccinated, and then returned back to their original locations.
Rule 6 and Rule 7 of The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, state as follows:
    1. Rule 6 clearly envisages that even if the Municipal Corporation thinks it expedient to control street dog populations; IT CANNOT RESORT TO KILLING OR DISLOCATING. It can only sterilize and immunize the dogs, and then leave them at the locations that they had been picked up from.
    2. Rule 7 deals with the procedure to be followed upon receipt of a complaint. Please also note, the Municipality, cannot just pick up dogs, simply because some persons/administrators don’t like their being around. Even the dogs that are complained about can only be sterilized and immunized, and then left back at the locations that they had been picked up from.