GUWAHATI: The Nagaland government, in a cabinet meeting of ministers, took a historic decision to impose a ban on trade of dogs and sale of dog meat. The chief secretary of Nagaland, Temjem Toy, took to Twitter to make the announcement about the same.
“The State Government has decided to ban commercial import and trading of dogs and dog markets and also the sale of dog meat, both cooked and uncooked. Appreciate the wise decision taken by the State’s Cabinet,” tweeted the chief secretary of the state.
The decision came after an outcry on social media over images of dog meat being sold in Dimapur and the movement against sale of dog meat picked up pace after the Rajya Sabha MP Pritish Nandy urged his followers on Twitter to raise their voices against sale of dog meat.
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“This is urgent. You can help make history by sending an email tonight to csngl@nic.in saying Nagaland must stop dog markets, dog restaurants, and smuggling of dogs into the state. Eating dog meat is inhuman, not just illegal. The issue comes before the cabinet tomorrow,” the MP tweeted through his Twitter handle.
Killing of dogs for meat is considered illegal under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. According to the Food Safety and Standards Regulation, 2011, dogs, cats and other animals cannot be slaughtered for food.
Every year, incidents of dogs being smuggled across the northeast were being reported, to please the palates of those people who consider dog meat a delicacy.
The matter was brought up by various organizations from Guwahati also, as numerous dogs had disappeared from the streets of Guwahati overnight in June last year.
There had been instances of dogs going missing from many localities of the city which was linked to scandalous dog sneaking rackets ostensibly plying in the city.
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Dogs were drugged, muzzled and stuffed into trucks to be smuggled off to places like Mizoram and Nagaland where there is a considerable amount of demand for dog meat.
Dog meat is popular in Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur among certain Tibeto-Burmese communities but there was no formal regulation in place to regulate sale of dog meat. Earlier, Mizoram government had removed dogs from the list of animals suitable for consumption as per the Animal Slaughter Bill 2020.