Can the constitutional right to life ever truly accommodate non-human sentience, or is public law destined to view animals as a mere civic menace? When a court steps into a urban crisis governed by fragile municipal infrastructure, contested science, and deep moral polarization, where does its legitimate authority end? And what happens when a judicial order, issued in the name of safeguarding children from stray dogs, triggers a wave of public panic and unlawful culling on the ground?In this episode of the LAOT Podcast, Arnav Mathur speaks with Vivek Mukherjee (Faculty Coordinator, Animal Law Center, NALSAR University of Law) about the Supreme Court of India’s recent final judgment in the high-stakes suo motu case, "In Re: City Hounded by Strays, Kids Pay the Price."The conversation charts the turbulent, multi-stage arc of the litigation, from an initial, sweeping blanket pickup order to a complex final ruling permitting the conditional euthanasia of dangerous stray dogs and stripping away "re-release" protections in institutional areas. Together, they analyze the court's controversial invocation of Article 142 to carve out statutory exceptions, the practical and financial impossibilities faced by underfunded municipal bodies mandated to build Animal Birth Control (ABC) centers, and the "symbolic authority" of judicial text that can inadvertently license public cruelty. Finally, they discuss NALSAR’s own court-sanctioned campus model as a beacon for humane, student-driven coexistence, and explore how Indian environmental jurisprudence might eventually break free from a strictly anthropocentric binary toward a more inclusive "natural contract."