As far back as 1926, a mill owner in Ahmedabad approached Mahatma Gandhi for his opinion on the extermination of 60 stray dogs that had turned rabid on his mill premises. The mill owner said he had to kill them to save human lives.
“What else could be done,” Mahatma Gandhi said to the mill owner who quoted him to the people who were opposing putting the dogs to sleep.
When the Mahatma was asked by the Ahmedabad Humanitarian League if this was indeed the opinion he had given, he said it was and took up the issue. . .