Highlights
- The court also made the registration of pet dogs within one month compulsory with a fee which shall not be less than Rs. 12,000 per year.
- Every registered dog must wear a collar when a pet is taken to public places; its mouth shall be properly covered.
- The court said that if the corporation wished, then the compensation amount can be recovered from the dog owner.
Amid an increase in the number of attacks on humans by pet dogs, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Gurugram has Tuesday directed the Municipal Corporation to ban 11 “foreign breeds”.
The court has also asked the Corporation to cancel the registration granted to such banned dog breeds and take them into its custody.
11 dog breeds banned as pet
Eleven breeds have been banned, with effect from November 15, 2022. These are American Pit-bull Terriers, Dogo Argentino, Rottweiller, Neapolitan Mastiff, Boerboel, Presa Canario, Wolf Dog, Bandog, American Bulldog, Fila Brasileiro, and Cane Corso.
It further said that MCG can allow a family to keep only one dog.
Directives for dog owners in Gurugram
The court also made the registration of pet dogs within one month compulsory with a fee which shall not be less than Rs. 12,000 per year.
Every registered dog must wear a collar when a pet is taken to public places; its mouth shall be properly covered.
Pet owners are also required to take waste bags and pluckers to maintain proper hygiene and cleanliness in public places.
Rs 2 lakh compensation for dog attack
The forum’s order on Tuesday came in a complaint filed by a woman injured in a pet-dog attack in August.
The incident took place on August 11 when Munni, the victim, a native of west Bengal, was attacked by a pet dog while she was going to work with her sister-in-law.
She had suffered critical injuries on her head and face and was referred from the civil hospital in Gurugram to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital.
In the FIR registered at Civil Lines police station, the dog’s breed was mentioned as ‘Pitbull’. Later, the owner informed that the breed is a ‘Dogo Argentino’.
The consumer forum awarded the woman an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh.
Recover compensation from the owner
The court said that if the corporation wished, then the compensation amount can be recovered from the dog owner.
It also directed the civic body to take the dog into custody and cancel the owner’s licence with immediate effect.
“The owner of the dog had blatantly violated the law of the land and rules framed thereunder for having kept the banned breed of dog i.e. Dogo Argentino as a pet dog, so the MCG is put at liberty to recover the amount of Rs 2 lakhs from the owner of the dog,” it said.
The dog owner had argued that since the complainant did not qualify as a ‘consumer’, the complaint was not maintainable.
Ban on foreign dog breeds
In October, the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation in Uttar Pradesh had banned ferocious dog breeds — Pit Bull, Rottweiler, and Dogo Argentino as pets.
Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Panchkula Municipal Corporation had also banned pitbull and rottweiler breeds of dogs as pets within the city limits.
