Puppies: Puppies sold ‘wholesale’ online, thanks to loophole in law

Did you know that puppies can be purchased ‘wholesale’ online? Did you know that these living beings are sold as ‘units’, that ‘shipping is free’ for them and that they come with an ‘exchange policy’? But the commodification of living, breathing animals with feelings is not the only horror of online sales. Animal activist Priya-Chetty Rajagopal, who started an online petition calling for a ban on the online sale of puppies a couple of days ago, says that this also results in the large-scale abuse of animals. “Sites like Quikr, Facebook (which disallows sale through Marketplace, but allows listing on groups), Marshall Petzone, Dogsindia.com, Dogbazar.org and even B2B sites like Indiamart.com all allow pups/dogs to be sold online like objects. How often have you bought something online and realised you didn’t really need it? Now, think about how dangerous that is when the ‘item’ you’ve bought is a living thing with feelings and needs. Online sale of pets encourages impulsive buying, which then results in the abandonment of pets when people realise that they don’t really want them. Such sites also have policies that include guarantees, exchange and return-by clauses. Dogs are not toys to be sold online and exchanged, like, say, a kurta. Unhygienic puppy mills are thriving because people can anonymously sell puppies online. This results in dogs having genetic defects, and many times people who ‘order’ such pups simply do not want them. Breeding has become a lucrative business thanks to this, and many dogs are being stolen so that they can be bred and their pups sold online,” Priya explains.
Online sales are thriving despite India having strict laws on animal breeding. “That’s the tragedy,” says, Priya, adding, “Somehow, the government has missed recognising online sales as third-party sales, so there is no regulation or check on these. The Dog Breeding, Marketing And Sale Rules states that basic medical checks must stringently be carried out for genetic defects, the puppy has to be at least two months old before it is sold, and that a dog can only be made to breed once a year. But none of this matters in the online space. The government taxes sanitary napkins, death and insurance, why not breeding?”
Through her petition, Priya and others like her want to raise awareness and get the government to tweak the animal welfare law to ban the sale of animals online, thus putting an end to the miseries suffered by thousands of hapless dogs.

The dangers of selling puppies online
These are some of the risks that Priya has listed in her online petition:
  • It encourages impulse buys and subsequent dumping of the animals
  • Delivering puppies across distances results in health issues, which can sometimes be fatal. Pups often die painfully from highly-communicable diseases, such as Parvo or CD from being crammed together in a cage with others
  • No DNA testing for genetic defects results in unethical, unscientific breeders
  • It creates a mentality that dogs are commodities, rather than sentient beings
  • Promotes easy access to exotic breeds that suffer in the Indian climate
  • The focus on pedigree and breeds means that people will not want to adopt Indian dogs
  • The anonymity of the online sale is being misused as a grey market for selling stolen or missing dogs
  • Unhygienic puppy mills thrive as they now can access
  • customers, but not require face-to-face sales, touch and feel, inspection of pet and rescue records, vaccinations etc.
  • The law states that the sale of pups for experiments can only be done through registered organisations. But with online sales, there is no way to track this