Indian ban on tail-docking undone

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

CHANDIGARH––Kennel Club of India general secretary Harinder Singh Aulakh in mid-April 2013 advised dog breeders via the Indian Kennel Gazette that they may resume cropping the ears and docking the tails of dogs, after the Madras High Court ruled that the Animal Welfare Board of India lacked the authority to ban ear-cropping and tail-docking if done by a “qualified veterinarian.”  The AWBI had issued an order against ear-cropping and tail-docking in November 2011.

Overturning the ban on ear-cropping and tail-docking came parallel to another boon to Indian fancy-breeders implemented on April 15,  2013 by the Central Board of Excise & Customs.  Previously,  any traveler to India could import two dogs or cats as baggage per arrival.  Under the new rule,  explained Priya M. Menon of the Times of India News Network,  “The import of two pet animals as baggage will be allowed only to persons who transfer their residence to India after two years of continuous stay abroad.”

This in effect gives established Indian fancy-breeders a monopoly on producing purebred dogs.  But the new policy is endorsed by the AWBI,  Blue Cross of India,  and People for Animals,  to curtail an influx of purebred dogs imported mostly from breeders in Thailand,  Malaysia,  Russia,  and Uzbekistan. “Thousands of dogs pour into India every month through fake tourists who are couriers for breeders,” charged PfA founder Maneka Gandhi.  “India has hundreds of thousands of our own dogs,  and we are trying desperately to handle the numbers by spending money on sterilization programs.  But for every Indian dog we sterilize,  foreign dogs bred illegally are taking their place.”

Added longtime Blue Cross of India chief executive and AWBI member Chinny Krishna,  “Many of these [imported] dogs are purchased on a whim as status symbols by people who later abandon them on the street.”