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.

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.

Shelter operations manager Kylie Betler told Newsweek that "microchipping and licensing your animals is the best way to reunite them back home.