Madras high court bats for regulating pet ownership in Tamil Nadu – Times of India

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday pushed for regulating pet ownership in the state. “Let Tamil Nadu be the first state to come up with such regulation,” the court said.
“In our country, pets can come to the streets and do whatever they want and the owner is not accountable. But in the US and Europe, the owners are under obligation to dispose of even the stools of dogs,” the first bench of acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu said.
We would require petting an animal in a manner that it does not affect others, the court said while enlarging the scope of a PIL moved for proper upkeep of dogs on IIT (Madras) campus.
Concurring with the submission of a lawyer that stray dogs have become a menace in the city, the court said the Chennai corporation must frame proper rules to check the population of such dogs.
The court made the observations on a PIL moved by People for Cattle India (PFCI) for proper upkeep of more than 100 dogs that are captured on the IIT-M campus and are lodged in three dog parks.
When the plea came up for hearing, the judges questioned the IIT on why it created dog parks instead of approaching the corporation, which is authorised to deal with the issue.
To this, counsel for IIT submitted that the decision was made by a committee that comprises representatives from the corporation, the forest department and animal welfare NGOs.
Recording the submissions, the court directed counsel to prepare a compilation of all the orders and affidavits filed in the case and adjourned the hearing to February 9.