Australian & Indian Supreme Courts overturn dog laws

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2013:

MELBOURNE,  DELHI––The Supreme Courts of Australia and India on January 26 and February 6,  2013, respectively,  struck down enforcement of recent appellate court rulings upholding dangerous dog laws.   The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal had agreed with the Darebin and Monash city councils that two dogs they had impounded are pit bulls,  kept in violation of legislation adopted after the August 2011 fatal mauling of Ayen Choi,  4,  by a free-roaming pit bull who chased her mother into their home.  The Darebin and Monash dogs were both scheduled to be killed,  but the American Pit Bull Terrier Club of Australia funded a series of appeals.  Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye ruled that the dogs do not closely enough meet the breed standards for pit bulls, ordered that they be returned to their homes,  and ordered Darebin and Monash to pay $200,000 in legal fees and pound costs. Victoria state premier Ted Bailleau pledged to introduce new legislation to crack down on pit bulls.  “I think Victorians want these dogs off the street and out of their lives,”   he told Melbourne Age political correspondent Richard Willingham. The Supreme Court of India stayed a December 7,  2012 Karnataka High Court interpretation of the national Animal Birth Control legislation which held that dogs who are “a menace” or “cause [hazardous] nuisance” may be killed,  even if they have been sterilized by an ABC program.  The Karnataka High Court had,  however,  stipulated that “dogs cannot be culled en masse.”