Our Reporter
Dimapur, June 30 (EMN): Unabated sale of dogs for consumption in Nagaland has once again drawn the attention and ire of Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), Maneka Gandhi, who is also one of the leading animal rights activists in the country.
In a post on the Instagram page of People for Animals (PFA), India’s largest animal welfare organisation founded by Gandhi in 1992, she stated that it was illegal to kill and sell dog for consumption and it cannot be ‘allowed under the guise of culture’.
She went on to claim that ‘Nagaland has eaten all of its dogs, that now they are being brought from other states from as far as West Bengal and Assam’.
“Trucks full of dogs are being taken to Nagaland at night, crossing the border illegally; the dogs’ mouths are tied with rope so they cannot bark and many die of suffocation on the way,” wrote Gandhi.
In a message to the almost 22,000 followers of the PFA page, the MP said that they could be bearers of change by simply writing an email.
“I am not going to give you a prepared letter because I want you to make your own…I want you to protest in a civilised manner to the chief secretary of Nagaland Mr. Temjen Toy and ask for the police to stop the dog bazaars and the dog restaurants in Nagaland,” read her post.
She said that the police should stop the dogs from coming in to the state, and the smugglers must be caught.
“I want 50,000 emails to go to him (chief secretary) in three days. So for the next three days, make sure you and all your friends write to him. We can change the world together,” she wrote.
Earlier in May, Gandhi had written to the chief minister of Nagaland, seeking the latter’s intervention in rescinding shoot-at-sight orders for dogs issued by various local authorities in the state.
