It’s a trade, flourishing on cruelty, that has reached an estimated value of Rs 800 crore. And yet there are no rules to regulate it.

India’s animal market has been growing at about 20% every year, with pet stores cropping up in nearly every city and town. But instead of policing these shops, the government has been sitting on a set of regulatory rules for years, with the result that animals are being treated inhumanely, leading to their deaths.

On August 28, the Law Commission submitted a report to Union Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, urging the central government to take note of the callousness pervasive in India’s animal market and advocating implementation of five-year-old rules for regulating the trade.

Detailing the horrors occurring in animal markets, the report says that puppies are drugged to prevent them from crying, large birds are stuffed into small cages, and fish die due to confinement, crowding, contaminated water and unnatural temperatures.

It’s common to witness cruelties like de-beaking of birds, dog tails being docked, sale of unweaned pups, and kittens being de-clawed. Even protected animals, such as star tortoises, and wild animals (including parakeets, munias and mynas) are caught and sold in flagrant violation of the Wildlife (Protection) Act.

The report, titled “Need to Regulate Pet Shops and Dog and Aquarium Fish Breeding”, says that many animals don’t survive the trauma of being transported in small cages without adequate water or food. Forty per cent of them die in captivity or transportation.

Unimplemented rules

To curb such tortures, the Animal Welfare Board of India had in 2010 framed rules for regulating pet shops as well as dog and aquarium fish breeding.

The Draft Pet Shop Rules, 2010, said the liberalisation of the economy and increase in purchasing power had given birth to new trades. Among these was the “mushrooming, and yet unregulated pet trade in live animals, that are capable of experiencing discomfiture, pain, hunger and thirst just as humans do. Live animals are exhibited and traded like commodities in pet and pet product shops”.

The rules aimed to ensure humane handling of animals and to regulate pet trade. However, they were never implemented. Following consultations with the law ministry, the environment ministry pleaded “helplessness in notifying the rules quoting the absence of enabling provision in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960”.

The law secretary even opposed the Law Commission examining the issue of whether these rules could be enforced by the environment ministry, which supervises the implementation of the Wildlife Protection Act and the Prevention of Cruelty on Animals Act.

Discarding the objection, the Law Commission chairman AP Shah, a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, said the ministry could take its report into account while coming to a conclusion.

After taking the views of different stakeholders – including environmentalists, conservationists and animal rights activists – the commission recommended that the 2010 rules should be notified so that rampant violations could be curtailed and the guilty brought to book.

“Since the mute cannot complain, the responsibility to ensure compassionate and empathetic handling is greater,” the commission said. It added that pet shops are commercial establishments – they have to be regulated with licences and parameters of operational standards.

Black market in birds

The commission expressed concern over the trade in the report:
“It is estimated that for every bird sold in the market, two die en route. Fledglings are stolen from their nests and smuggled to market in cartons and tiny boxes, and some are even rolled up inside socks during transport to cities. Captive birds’ wings are crudely clipped with scissors to prevent them from flying. The birds are doomed to a lifetime in cramped cages in which they can hardly stretch their wings.”

Despite the Wildlife Protection Act, which bans the trade and trapping of all indigenous birds, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which restricts the trade in foreign birds, a black market in birds thrives openly, involving many of the country’s estimated 1,200 species.

The non-profit People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals India told the Law Commission that a “multi-crore but essentially unregulated pet trade” existed in India that is growing yearly at a rate of about 20%. The Indian pet-care market alone is estimated to reach about Rs 800 crore in 2015. PETA pointed out that there were thousands of breeders and pet shops in the Indian market, but no specific law to protect the animals.

No licensing authority

Another NGO, Friendicoes-SECA (Society for the Eradication of Cruelty to Animals), said that no pet shop in Delhi or across the country gives receipt for the sale of animals, and that varied prices are quoted for the same breed depending upon opportunity. It further said that since pet shops do not pay any kind of service or value added tax, huge losses were being caused to the government.

A Rajasthan-based NGO, People for Animals, gave more insights into pet trade practices. It told the commission that there are approximately 450 pet shops in Delhi alone, and every tier-II city in the country has at least 200 such stores. Besides these, there are websites where pet trade happens on a large scale. Yet, despite all this, there is no licensing authority for these shops: for example, the Delhi municipality licenses only meat shops; the Animal Husbandry Department licenses only cattle; and the Forest Department does not regard pet shops as being within its mandate.

The Law Commission’s recommendations assume importance in light of a Supreme Court judgement last year. “Every species has an inherent right to live and shall be protected by law, subject to the exception provided out of necessity,” the apex court verdict said. “Animal has also honour and dignity which cannot be arbitrarily deprived of and its rights and privacy have to be respected and protected from unlawful attacks.”