The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A debate on rearing pets in apartments

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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A debate on rearing pets in apartments

City Bureau

Exhibiting a responsible pet ownership is the need of the hour, say animal activists

— Photo : N. Sridharan

IMPOSING FAÇADE: Life in apartments has its own quota of plus and minus points. A complex in Besant Nagar.

CHENNAI: The growth in the residential apartment complexes across the city has brought along with it the need for families to readjust themselves to various aspects, including those pertaining to safety and security.

The vertical growth has made some of the traditional symbols of human security, including rearing of pets a misfit in the rapidly urbanising Chennai. It has also brought to the fore the significance of adhering to the rules and meeting the challenges jointly.

The death of 11-year-old Ashish Arvind of Meenambakkam last week has generated a lot of debate among those living in the flats who feel that rearing a pet in a residential complex should be banned.

Animal welfare organisations, however, disagree with such views and say that knee-jerk reactions in the form of framing new rules should be avoided. At the same time, they underscore the need for the pet owners to be more careful.

Keeping a good pet will provide solace to the elderly and persons with disabilities, according to Blue Cross chairman Chinni Krishna. Educating children on handling pets will help avoid incident such as the one that happened at Indian Airlines residential quarters in Meenambakkam, in which the boy died.

He added that apartments are not ideal places for bigger canine breeds such as German Shepherd and Great Dane as they may require a large space for some physical exercise. Similarly, the pet-owners should take them for a walk. The local dog breeds are ideal for those living in apartments, he said.

In his opinion, doing animal birth control operation to a pet will reduce its ferocity and it will also make the canine docile . Similarly the pet owners have to vaccinate their pets once in a year compulsorily.

According to the Tamil Nadu Housing Board allotment rules, residents of apartments constructed by the Board are not allowed to rear pets. The TNHB had sent a circular asking the allottees to avoid rearing pets as some residents were complaining of disturbance because of the pets owned by their neighbours.

Some of the residents oblige, but it has not been possible to prohibit pets in all TNHB flats because of the reluctance of some pet-owners, said an official of the Board.

Some residents had even sought the intervention of the judiciary as abandoning pets and failure to provide them food and shelter would amount to an offence under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Within the Chennai Corporation limits, around 1500 pet dog-owners have been provided licences, which have to be renewed annually. The dogs can be taken either to the Basin Bridge dog pound or one of the dispensaries at Perambur, Mylapore, Pudupet and Kodambakkam. K.Dinakar Babu, Veterinary Officer, Chennai Corporation said that the license fee was just Rs.16 per dog. “We vaccinate the dogs against rabies and also ensure that the dog is not otherwise sick.”

According to R.L.Narayanan, Partner, Rank Associates, a legal firm, there were no rules regarding keeping of pets in apartments. If you bring in a pet or any other animal and there is a potential that it can cause danger then if that happens basically the person who has kept the pet or animal would be exposed to liability. This, however, depends on the factual circumstances of the case.

V.Rajkumar, an advocate, said that though there are no common rules for apartments, each flat association has its set of bylaws regarding keeping pets in homes. In some places they permit and others they do not. It is mandatory that the dog has to be on leash and the owner must not let it roam outside on its own.

As in the western countries the pet owners should exercise adequate care while rearing them, says the spokesperson for the People for Animals, an animal welfare organisation founded by Maneka Gandhi.

Putting a blanket ban on rearing pets in a flat is not the solution for the problem, she says. Bigger canines do not fit in a flat complex and keeping them in the apartments will be in a way inflicting cruelty on them.

Exhibiting a responsible pet ownership is the need of the hour, voice the animal welfare organisations in the city.

(With inputs from Aloysius Xavier Lopez, P.Oppili and Deepa H Ramakrishnan)

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