Can't ask govt to act against owners of undeclared exotic pets: Tripura HC

GUWAHATI: The Tripura HC has ruled that most people possessing exotic wildlife species are animal lovers and it cannot direct the government to declare the possession of undeclared stock of such species as illegal and prosecute the owners.
Dismissing a PIL seeking to declare the possession of undeclared exotic animals and birds as illegal by amending the Customs Act and the Wild Life (Protection) Act and prosecution of the owners, a division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice SG Chattopadhyay observed, "We are of the view that we can neither direct, nor expect the government to take such drastic steps in haste, without assessment of impact and without a detailed study."
"A large number of citizens across the country commonly own pets such as dogs, cats, birds, rabbits etc, which may also belong to exotic species and might have been purchased or procured from those involved in captive breeding. Such pets may number in millions and also breed," the bench said in its order last Wednesday. The petitioner had pleaded all such exotic pets in domestic possession will have to be forfeited and housed by the government and their owners be arrested, imprisoned and prosecuted under Wild Life Act and compelled to disclose the source under Customs Act, 1962.
"The step suggested by the petitioner will have very wide and far-reaching ramifications. We cannot lose sight of the facts that most people possessing such exotic species are animal lovers and over time such species become a part of the family like a child in the house," the court said.