In cities across the country, the feral animals are both loved and feared. The judges are forging into intensely emotional territory by going after the ones in the capital.

In Turkey, a 2024 law ordering the removal of all strays ran headlong into a reality check: Municipal shelters could hold only 105,000 dogs in a country with an estimated four million. Reports of neglect and euthanasia soon followed.

India’s top court has ordered authorities in New Delhi to start removing all stray dogs from its streets and to sterilize and relocate them to shelters permanently.