GUWAHATI: In a landmark decision Nagaland government has ended the brutal dog meat trade. The decision by the cabinet will end the import, trade and sale of live dogs and dog meat.
Humane Society International/India (HSI/India) and People for Animal which together have campaigned for years to end India’s dog meat trade, including exposing Nagaland’s “death pits” in a shocking investigation in 2016, welcome this decision as a major turning point in ending the cruelty of India’s hidden dog meat trade. HSI/India estimates that around 30,000 dogs a year are smuggled into Nagaland where they are sold in live markets and beaten to death with wooden clubs.
Dog meat consumption is prohibited in India through the Food Safety and Standard (Food Products Standard and Additives) Regulation, 2011. However, this is poorly enforced, and in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, thousands of dogs each year are illegally captured from the streets or stolen from homes, and cruelly transported from neighbouring states in gunny bags to bebrutally slaughtered for consumption by being beaten to death.
Earlier this week, Indian Member of Parliament Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi made an urgent public appeal to urge the Government of Nagaland to stop the trade and consumption of dog meat after receiving new photographs of the trade from a Nagaland-based animal protection organization. The appeal led to more than 125,000 people writing to the Nagaland government.
Alokparna Sengupta, HSI/India’s managing director, said: “The suffering of dogs in Nagaland has long cast a dark shadow over India, and so this news marks a major turning point in ending the cruelty of India’s hidden dog meat trade.”
“We also congratulate the Government of Nagaland and offer our support so that this decision can be robustly implemented. The Government of Nagaland has shown great leadership and we urge other states such asMizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh to follow their lead by implementing a dog meat trade ban too,” the HSI/India official said.