Lucknow, Mar 15: The dog owners in Lucknow are facing a dilemma after the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) announced a ban on sale, breeding or keeping of foreign breed dogs ‘dangerous to human life’ and also decided not to issue licences for dogs of banned breeds that are not sterilized and vaccinated.

The ban has been imposed in view of the Centre's directives.

Lucknow Municipal Corporation will run a door-to-door campaign from April 1 to enforce the central government ban on 23 dog breeds from being kept as pets.

In a letter to state governments, the Union animal husbandry and dairy department has sought a ban on dog breeds considered as “ferocious” and “dangerous to human life”.

These breeds are: Pitbull Terrier, Tosa Inu, American Staffordshire Terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Dogo Argentino, American Bulldog, Boerboel, Kangal, Central Asian Shepherd Dog, Caucasian Shepherd Dog, South Russian Shepherd Dog, Tornjak, Sarplaninac, Japanese Tosa and Akita, Mastiffs, Rottweiler, Terriers, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Wolf Dogs, Canary Dogs, Akbash, Moscow Guard and Cane Corso.

The LMC officials said the civic body will not issue new licenses for these breeds as pets from April 1.

Breeding centres will also be prohibited from breeding them, they added.

However, people who already own these breeds of pets will be allowed to keep them provided they have a licence and are duly registered with LMC. The pet owners will have to get their dogs sterilised and vaccinated and get the licenses renewed. They can keep the pups if the female of these breeds is pregnant at present, but no procreation will be allowed in future.

Dr Abhinav Verma, LMC animal welfare officer, said a fine of Rs 5,000 will be imposed and the dog will be confiscated if a pet owner is found to have a dog of banned breed without licence and registration.

According to LMC, there are about 400 dogs of such breeds as pets in Lucknow.

In the current financial year, LMC issued 5,370 pet dog licenses with the majority belonging to indigenous breeds, popular foreign breeds like Labrador and German Shepherd among others.

Municipal commissioner Inderjeet Singh said, “We have not banned the dogs’ species on our own. The decision came after the animal husbandry ministry’s directive to ensure prohibition on sale, breeding or keeping of foreign dog breeds. It constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of animal husbandry commissioner with members from various stakeholder organisations and experts. The committee identified these breeds of dogs as ferocious, which are dangerous for human life.”

He added that the department of animal husbandry and municipal corporations shall not issue any licenses/permit for sale/breeding of these dogs and keeping of these dog breeds shall be banned with immediate effect. However, the dogs that have already been kept as pets shall be sterilized so that further breeding may not happen.”

(IANS)

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