The Delhi High Court recently asked the Centre to produce the file pertaining to its circular asking states to ensure that no licences or permissions are issued for the sale, breeding and keeping of certain dog breeds which are “dangerous for human life”.
In its March 22 order, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said, “Learned counsel for the respondent is directed to produce the original file on the next date of hearing.”
Dr OP Chaudhary, the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying, issued the circular on March 12 to the chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories regarding dog breeds. The circular aimed to address concerns about human deaths caused by dog bites from “ferocious” breeds kept as pets.
The circular mentioned “breeds (including mixed and cross breeds) like Pitbull Terrier, Tosa Inu, American Staffordshire Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Dogo Argentino, American Bulldog, Boerboel, Kangal, Central Asian Shepherd Dog (ovcharka), Caucasian Shepherd Dog (ovcharka), South Russian Shepherd Dog (ovcharka), Tornjak, Sarplaninac, Japanese Tosa and Akita, Mastiffs (boerbulls), Rottweiler, Terriers, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Wolf Dogs, Canario, Akbash dog, Moscow Guard dog, Cane corso, and every dog of the type commonly known as a Ban Dog (or Bandog)”.
“The Committee has recommended that the aforementioned dog breeds, including cross breeds, shall be prohibited for import, breeding, selling as pet dogs and other purposes. Therefore, it is requested that the local bodies, Department of Animal Husbandry shall not issue any licenses or permit for sale, breeding of dogs breeds as mentioned above and keeping of these dog breeds and shall be banned. The Local Bodies may also issue necessary implementation guidelines in this regard. However, the dogs which have already (been) kept as a pet shall be sterilized so that further breeding may not happen,” the circular stated.
These recommendations came from an expert committee, formed under the chairmanship of the Animal Husbandry Commissioner. The committee was said to include various stakeholder organisations and experts as members.
The petitioner, Canine Welfare Organisation, in its public interest litigation petition challenging the circular argued that it does not show the reasons based on which certain breeds were banned.
“The impugned circular does not disclose any reasoning given by the purported Executive Committee for selectively choosing certain breeds to pass a generic banning order in respect of certain breeds of dogs,” the petition stated.
It contends that certain breeds have been labelled as “dangerous for human life” without any scientific research, data or reasoning.
“The rationale or intelligible differentia is missing in the decision making process. It is submitted that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act or the rules made thereunder do not give any yardstick/set principles to define and label a particular breed of animals as dangerous,” the plea added.
The plea further submitted that the Centre has “evidently adopted a pick-and-choose mechanism to identify certain breeds without any justifiable basis”.
The matter is next listed on April 9.
