In December last year, the team at Charlie's Animal Rescue Center (CARE) responded to a call about 13-odd breed dogs — six German shepherds, three pugs, terriers, labradors and an indie dog — that were kept chained at an abandoned building at Thanisandra near Hennur in Bengaluru.
A 45-year-old painter Venkatesh, who moonlighted as a dog breeder, had kept the dogs chained in the locked rooms for months, with just a window for access. The females were forcibly bred with indie dogs and the resulting litter was sold for a quick profit. Confined to the room, the dogs ate and defecated in the same space.
“As rescue workers, we are used to the hard smell,” said Keerthan R P, the manager at CARE, even as we stood talking at their rescue centre in Yelahanka, where the smell of urine and phenyl was strong enough to permeate two masks.
“But that day, we couldn’t tolerate the stench. All of us started puking,” Keerthan said.
At first, the entire team landed up to take the blood tests and vaccinate the dogs, who are susceptible to various diseases when kept in such unhygienic conditions.
“Then we submitted the reports to the police and confiscated the dogs,” said Aniruddha Ravindra, who coordinates rescues at CARE.
Most of the dogs were adopted, while some of them went to a permanent animal shelter operated by the Voice of Stray Dogs.
The CARE centre in Yelahanka rescues nearly 130-140 dogs each month, of which at least 20-30% are breed dogs, abandoned for various reasons. Over half of them are breeder discards.
At the other end of the city, near Sarjapur, Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) runs the Second Chance Adoption Center, which took in close to 60 breed dogs abandoned after being used for breeding last year.
It is hard to estimate the number of such illegal breeding centres, but one can gauge the extent of the problem by simply browsing social media sites, where ‘dog adoption groups’ based out of Karnataka see at least 60-70 posts with photos of breed puppies, each day.
Bharat Gowda, the admin of one such Facebook group, said the number of dogs for sale shot up during the lockdown last year, and even this year, as more people turned to companion animals to stave off boredom. The huge demand for these dogs also meant that prices nearly doubled.
“Almost everyone with a dog turned into a breeder overnight,” said Gowda, who owns and breeds golden retrievers himself.
Boom in sales
“Today the dog is like a status symbol. If you have an Audi, then you have to have a Chow Chow or a Siberian Husky at home,” said Keerthan.
The aspirational quality of these breed dogs, coupled with their representation in popular media, has fuelled the huge demand for these animals, which has led to the rise of puppy mills and unethical breeders.
Gowda and other breeders DH spoke to say the trend, of late, is for beagles and golden retrievers; a few years ago, there was a huge demand for Shih Tzus and other small breeds like Pugs.
Animal activists and rescue workers say that the prevalence of these breeders actually increases the pressure on the system.
The low price of these breed dogs from puppy mills actually discourages people from adopting indie dogs off the street.
When families find that the puppies have a disease or genetic disorder (due to unhygienic breeding conditions or rampant inbreeding) or if they are unequipped to look after the dog (as was the case during the lockdown), they just abandon them on the street.
“Have you ever seen an uncute puppy in your life? But you don’t see where their mothers come from, you don’t see the rape stands that they tied to,” said Priya Chetty Rajagopal, a self-professed animal lover and activist.
Over the past few years, Priya has been at the forefront of a series of campaigns and petitions to stop online websites from listing and selling dogs.
Despite the best efforts, she says, the sale in most social media websites continues, as a simple Google or Facebook search will indicate.
The Dog Breeding and Marketing rules, 2017, passed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, prescribes stringent rules and registration for all dog breeders. These include mandatory registration and application for a breeders licence for all dog owners who want to breed their dogs, as well as basic requirements for facilities to be provided. [See table]
“In Karnataka, even after these rules have come in, we see very scanty enforcement,” said Gauri Maulekhi, the trustee of People for Animals.
Problems galore
One of the proposed changes in legislation that Gauri has been fighting for is the setting up of the State Animal Welfare Boards across the country. In Karnataka, the State Animal Welfare Board (SAWB) was constituted on November 25, 2019 but there has been little action taken.
The Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Dr B N Shivaram, who is also the Member Secretary of the Board, blamed the pandemic for the SAWB’s work being stopped.
Dr Shivaram said the Board has no full-time members and is currently functioning with officers deputed from the Animal Husbandry Department, who are given additional duties.
“There are no posts that are sanctioned for the Board at all,” he said.
“The State Animal Welfare Board is basically a paper monster in Karnataka. No officers are really held accountable for taking action against illegal dog breeders and hence these businesses are flourishing,” Gauri said.
Speaking to officials in the Animal Husbandry Department, it is quite clear that they have little idea about the import of the problem, let alone its scale. On being questioned about the prevalence of this unethical breeding, one veterinary doctor said, “We haven’t come across any such cases. But this breeding happens. How else are you going to get puppies?”
Let’s take numbers. To begin with, there is no centralised data about the number of breed dogs present in the state. Provisional data from 2019 livestock census indicates that the state has close to 12.88 lakh dogs but the district-wise break up of these figures is yet to be released.
All other efforts related to welfare of companion animals is carried out at the level of the municipality.
When it comes to animal rescues, the vacuum of government action is filled by the passionate efforts of individuals or NGOs.
A long-standing demand of these NGOs, to allow them to become Honourary Animal Welfare Officers, is also stuck at the department, due to red tape.
The Department’s indifference to animal welfare is not surprising. In April 2019, activists across the country were dismayed after the Animal Welfare Board of India was shifted from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, to the Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture.
As Priya puts it, “This was a shift from a department which conserves and sustains, to one which uses and exploits.”
Perhaps nowhere is this conflict better exemplified than outside the building of Pashu Bhavana in Hebbal, which houses both the Animal Husbandry Department and State Animal Welfare Board.
Outside, oxen greet visitors to the building, while inside, all the talk is of cow welfare and the setting up of gaushalas, which has regained prominence in the aftermath of Karnataka’s Anti-cow slaughter law passed last year
The abuse of companion animals like dogs and cats, meanwhile, continues unabated.
Genetic disorders
The idea of a purebred dog is something of a misnomer. Most breed dogs, whether it is the Labrador, a Great Dane or the tiny Shih Tzu or Chow Chow, are animal breeds “cultivated” by humans for some desirable traits — hunting, as in the case of greyhounds or jack terriers, or companionship, as in the case of toy dog breeds like pugs and the chihuahua.
But many of the genetic traits that we appreciate, can often be disastrous for the dog. Take the case of the pug — most animals of this breed are susceptible to the Brachycephalic Airway Obstruction Syndrome, which leads to a series of problems with their respiratory or heart systems.
“We have three-month-old pug puppies that have epilepsy or fits; there is pug encephalitis, which is a syndrome specific to the breed,” said Dr Shahid Vaseem, who has been a practicing veterinarian in Bengaluru.
In 2016, India banned the import of foreign breeds. On the other hand, the rampant inbreeding of dogs with scant regard for breed quality, lineages, or their health is causing an increasing instance of genetic problems among breed dogs. [See table]
“I have been in practice for the past sixteen years and the issues have gotten worse. Most genetic problems do not have a cure,” Dr Vaseem adds.
When first-time pet owners buy Labradors from unscrupulous breeders online, they are left with young puppies that suffer from various health issues. Faced with the high cost of treatment and maintenance, most of these dogs are abandoned on the streets or storm water drains.
Rachna Mungi was one of the few people who chose differently. Six years ago, Rachna purchased a Labrador puppy from an breeder online, for which she paid Rs 6,000.
Soon her dog Max showed multiple problems — a worm infestation and hip dysplasia that showed up when he was six months old.
“We were first time pet parents and I wanted a lab puppy because I wanted my husband to get over his fear of dogs. We didn’t know about indie dog adoptions. But even after Max had these problems, the thought of abandoning him never occurred to us.”
Since then, Max has had two surgeries for his hip dysplasia, each costing an average of Rs 40,000.
Despite this, Rachna has stuck by her pet. “He is an integral part of our family. He is the baby! And so well-mannered and loveable. There is so much we have learnt from him,” Rachna said.
Regulate breeding
The only way out of this conundrum, activists argue, is to regulate the breeding and sale of dogs.
“Commercial animal breeding centres are always dirty places. Left unregulated they would become hotspots for pathogen exchange. It is best to regulate them,” Gauri said.
One of the other roadblocks, which the Karnataka State Animal Welfare Board is using as a fig leaf to cover its lack of action, is a writ petition against the implementation of the laws by the Belgaum Canine Association, which represents the interests of the Kennel Club of India.
“Most of the government’s rules prescribed conditions for breeding of dogs are impossible to implement,” said Kiran Kulkarni, the advocate representing the Belgaum Canine Association.
Kiran said they are not against the registration of dogs, but wanted the “stringent and impossible conditions” of the current law, regulating breeding, to be removed.
“Ethical breeders are a miniscule number in our country,”said Sanjana Madappa, of CUPA.
Sanjana said that most people wouldn’t buy from an ethical breeder, where the dog is taken care of well and the breed temperament and health is good, because the costs can be prohibitive, running into lakhs.
“You are going back to the puppy mills where it is absolute cruelty, where it is cheaper. That is why we tell people, don’t buy. Adopt.”
“A dog is not a fashion statement, it is a companion. If one in every 50 people could just adopt one dog from the street, we would have no street dogs in our country,” said Gauri.