Temjen Toy, Chief Secretary of Nagaland on Friday, 3 July, said that the state government has decided to “ban commercial import and trading of dog markets” along with the “sale of cooked and uncooked dog meat.”
Appreciating the decision taken by the State’s Cabinet, Toy tweeted:
The move has come amid outrage over a widely-shared picture on social media showing the animals at a market in Dimapur city.
Quite recently, social media users and animal welfare organisations had expressed anger over the picture of the dogs, which were tied in sacks with their mouths shut with a rope.
“These dogs were being taken from West Bengal to Nagaland on the 26 of last month (June) to be sold for meat for meat,” a Twitter user had posted on Wednesday.
Politician and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi had also called for a protest against the heinous treatment of the dogs and urged the police to stop the smuggling of the animals.
In parts of northeast India, dog meat is widely consumed and Nagaland, especially, is a big market.
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