‘Bring rules to check pet-care market where cruelty is norm’
29 Aug 2015 12:16 AM GMT
The panel recommended that the Ministry is authorised to notify rules under the Cruelty of Animals Act, 1960 and these should be implemented at the earliest. In its latest report ‘Need to Regulate Pet Shops and Dog and Aquarium Fish Breeding’, the law panel said it delved into the issue of whether the government is empowered to notify three sets of rules regarding pet shops, dog breeding and aquarium fish breeding.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, in consultation with the Ministry of Law, had pleaded helplessness in notifying these rules quoting the absence of enabling provision in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, it said. But the Commission recommended that since the rules on pet shops, dog breeding and aquarium fish breeding were drafted in consultation with stakeholders and lying pending since 2010, these “be notified and implemented at the earliest”.
Without acts in place, illegal breeding on the rise
The national Capital, which has a large pet-care market, is far behind in notifying rules for animal rights. The area not only registers <g data-gr-id="33">high number</g> of animal rights violations but also has become a ground where animals are bred flouting the prescribed norms. The activists, working in this field, claim that there are massive violations of guidelines of the MoEF. They claim that small shops, which do not have proper aquariums for fish breeding, at improper places, have cropped up in the city.
Breeding of dogs are being ensured without proper vaccination and even trading of cross breeds are on the rise. Breeders have emerged without having requisite permissions and even uneducated people have jumped into the business for quick profits. “In order to stop violation of animal rights, Delhi needs urgent regulation of the Act. Once regulated, breeders will hesitate to violate the norms.
Though Delhi has a huge count of animals, authorities have failed to provide shelters for them,” said Ajaydeep Singh, a member of an NGO.
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