The Supreme Court today restrained vigilante groups in Kerala from imparting training to children and distributing airguns to the people at a subsidised rate to kill stray dogs and publically propagate that there was a "war" against canines in the state.

The bench also took note of the submissions advanced by Kerala's counsel who said that the state government was making "immense efforts" to curtail spread of stray dogs and it was trying to ensure that no canines attack human beings.



"However, we really fail to fathom that when there is a law in place to deal with the stray dogs, how the associations and groups can be formed to train the children to kill the stray dogs or an association which can distribute subsidised airguns for people to kill stray dogs or publically propagate that there must be war against stray dogs," it said.

When the court was told that stray dogs were continuously attacking and killing human beings in Kerala, the bench remarked, "An impression should not go that human lives have a lesser value than the dog's life. Human life is divine."