As Delhi Chokes, PETA India’s New Billboard Warns Against Buying Breathing-Impaired Dog Breeds
As Delhi’s air pollution maintains hazardous levels, PETA India has erected a billboard in the city featuring a masked woman alongside a panting pug struggling to breathe with a tagline that reads, ‘Don’t buy breathing-impaired breeds’. The campaign draws attention to the plight of flat-faced dogs like pugs who struggle to breathe due to their abnormal and manmade physical anatomy—a struggle that gets even more challenging in polluted air.
Pugs, popularised by Vodafone commercials, and other breathing-impaired breeds like French and English bulldogs, Pekingese, Boston terriers, boxers, Cavalier King Charles spaniels, and shih tzus suffer from a debilitating and sometimes fatal condition called brachycephalic syndrome. This can make even going for a walk, chasing a ball, running, and playing – the things that make dogs’ lives joyful and fulfilling – difficult. PETA India had urged the Union Cabinet Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Purshottam Rupala, to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Dog Breeding and Marketing) Rules, 2017, to prohibit breeding these animals.
PETA India also warns that most pet shops and breeders are illegal as they aren’t registered with state animal welfare boards. They typically deprive dogs of proper veterinary care and adequate food, exercise, affection, and opportunities for socialisation – in addition to fuelling the companion animal overpopulation crisis. PETA India encourages those with the time, patience, love, and resources to welcome a dog into their home to adopt one from an animal shelter.
