Mumbai: Pup with its ears snipped put up for sale, 3 booked

MUMBAI: A criminal offence has been filed against three people for trying to sell a male American Bully pup after performing a banned “ear-cropping surgery” on the canine.
One of the accused, Karan Parkar (26), who claims to be a snake rescuer, had put up a message on social media groups along with videos of the pup put up for sale, said animal activist Vaishali Chawhan who stumbled upon one such post.


The other two named in the offence are Siddharth Parkar and Leon Dcosta, said Meet Ashar, Peta’s lead emergency response coordinator.

The pup seems to be less than two months old and is underweight, said Ashar. “The canine’s ears have been crudely trimmed. Also, he suffers from inflammation and infection of the skin after being made to live in unhygienic conditions.”
It is illegal to perform such traumatising and acutely painful mutilations on dogs, said Ashar. “These things are done just to satisfy whims of humans about how these animals should look… It is is immoral.”
The ear-cropping surgery is done to give a pet a “better aesthetic look”, said Chawhan. “It helps fetch a better sale value,” she added.
The pup’s ears have been slapped with layers of tape which were possibly put up to stop the flow of blood, said Ashar.
Senior police inspector of Kasturba Marg police station, Namdeo Shinde, confirmed that a first information report has been lodged. “Sections under the Animal Cruelty Act have been applied,” he said.
For now, Chawhan is fostering the pup. “The pup’s medical report mentions suture marks on his ears with a thread used for surgery,” she said. “Imagine such horrid torture on such a tiny pup.”