Animal welfare organisation People for Animals (PFA) has moved Kerala High Court against many housing societies, apartment associations and residents associations in the state, which bars residents from keeping pets in their homes. Calling the ban on keeping pets "illegal, arbitrary and unfair", PFA also added that "such associations cannot frame bye-laws or amend them in a manner at variance with the law of the country even by obtaining a consensus or by a complete majority". In its petition, filed through advocates KS Hariharaputhran and Bhanu Thilak, PFA said that it has received plenty of complaints from pet owners/pet parents against the ban imposed by various apartment associations, housing societies, and residents welfare associations (RWAs) across the state.
"Complaints were also received as to the notices and intimations given to pet owners/pet parents from such associations, asking them to abandon their pets," the petition said. PFA further contended that under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, "it is an offense to abandon a pet without any reasonable cause and in any circumstances which render it likely that the pet will suffer pain by reason of starvation or thirst".
The petitioner organisation said that the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) in 2015 issued guidelines which advise pet owners to ensure that their pets are not a source of nuisance to others, but it also made clear that no amount of pressure from any source should lead to the abandonment of the pets and that doing so is a violation of the law. The plea seeks direction to all the apartment associations, RWAs and housing societies to comply with the AWBI guidelines of 2015.
It also seeks a direction to the local self-government bodies to resolve issues regarding the ban on keeping pets.
Recently, the Kerala High Court ordered that people should get licenses from local bodies for their pets and domestic animals. The direction came following the brutal incident of two men and a minor, in Thiruvananthapuram district brutally beating a labrador dog, hanging the animal on a fish hook and throwing into the sea.
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