The Indian government has recently banned the import of dogs for breeding or any other commercial activity. A notification by the Director General of Foreign Trade says the import of dogs will only be allowed for defence and police forces, research and development organisations and people getting pet dogs with a valid pet book and relevant documents in the name of the importer.

“The last clause means that in order to import a dog one will have to prove that he used to own it abroad for a good amount of time and produce a pet book with his vaccinations etc,” says Amit Bose, ground secretary of North Calcutta Kennel Club. 

The government claims this will stop the suffering of dogs, who are built for foreign climates but are forced to live in India.
It also feels this law will put prevent breeders from importing dogs and turning them into “puppy mills” by mating them constantly without a care for their health.  

But there’s also a section of genuine dog lovers who feel the ban will deprive them without a fault. Starting this week, The Telegraph Salt Lake takes a look at some imported dogs in our neighbourhood and speaks to their owners about their  upkeep. 

St Bernard

About the breed: These gentle giants can grow up to around 35 inches at the withers and weigh up to 120kg. They were originally bred as mountain rescue dogs in the Swiss Alps. 

The breed got its name from the Great St Bernard Hospice, a tavern in the Alps between Switzerland and Italy. Back in the day, the dogs would venture out to the mountains and pick up scents of people trapped under the snow. They would dig them up and warm their bodies by licking them. The dogs would also carry small barrels of brandy tied to their collars for the rescued people to sip and stay warm.  If the person was too weak, the strong dogs would move them onto their back and carry them to the nearest tavern.

The most famous St Bernard to work at the Great St Bernard Hospice was Barry, who is said to have rescued more than 40 people in the early 1800s. Barry’s body is still preserved at the Natural History Museum of Bern and remains one of its biggest attractions. Today the St Bernard is the national dog of Switzerland and in the 1990s, the breed had caught the fancy of film-goers worldwide as the stars in the Beethoven films. 

Name: Buchki 

Imported from: London 

Gender: Female 

Age: One year 

Owner: Arijit Mukherjee 

Block: BC 

How she came: “I had a St Bernard as a child and always wanted to get another one. An acquaintance told me a about a great puppy in London and things fell into place. Buchki is the first dog I imported,” says Mukherjee.

Special care: Mukherjee also has two bred-in-India Labradors, a Spitz and a Cultured Pomeranian and everyone gets equal treatment. “They all stay in the AC and eat chicken with rice or roti,” says Mukherjee. “The only extra care Buchki demands is to be hand-fed.” Though the youngest dog in the house, the St Bernard is the largest and the most docile.
She’s also least demanding. 

Achievements: “We don’t show our dogs,” says Mukherjee. “One of our dogs once took part in a show but died shortly after, having contracted an infection from some other dog. Thereafter we’ve decided that our dogs are champions even without trophies.”

Offspring: Buchki is too young to be mated but when she is, Mukherjee plans to gift her puppies to friends. 

On the new law: “The breeders who exploit dogs don’t restrict themselves to imported ones. 

Many bred-in-India dogs are kept in cages all their lives and made to breed like rabbits. So the law is not fool- proof and I believe imported dogs will get smuggled into the country now,” says Mukherjee. 


Pomeranian 

About the breed: A descendent of the Spitz, Pomeranians get their name from the Pomerania region located between present day Poland and Germany. 

The petite furry toy breed weighs around 3kg and grows to about 20cm high. Poms became popular pets after they were adopted by personalities like Queen Victoria and Josephine, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Queen Victoria’s Pom, adopted in 1888, was red and particularly small for its time but thereafter its size and colour both became fashionable. The queen worked to promote the breed by importing smaller Poms of different colours to improve their quality. During her lifetime alone the size of Poms decreased by 50 per cent. 

Two Poms were among the only three dogs to survive the RMS Titanic shipwreck in 1912.

Name: Ind. Ch. AC Dynasty Atmajita’s Secret Weapon to Win (Lucas)

Imported from: Hong Kong

Gender: Male

Age: Five years

Owner: Prasenjit Chatterjee 

Block: BA 

How he came: Chatterjee imported Lucas after reading up about him on social networking sites. He was sired by Multiple Ch. Chriscendo Continuum and his mother was Ch. AC Dynasty Movie Star

Special care: Calcutta is extremely polluted and so I keep Lucas — along with my 16 other dogs — in a farm house in Bankura. They all eat a combination of packaged dog food and home-made food with supplements. All live in AC rooms and, depending on the weather, go to run and play outside. No one is chained. 

Achievements: Lucas has won multiple line-ups and was third Best in Show (BiS) and fourth BiS at the Kanyakumari championship dog show in 2015. 

Offspring: Lucas had mated with a bitch in Delhi and his daughter, Berry, lives with Chatterjee. 

On the new law: “I agree there are breeders who buy dogs from foreign countries by the kilo and don’t treat them right, but there are also amateur breeders like me who import dogs only to raise the standard of breeds in India. This law would hold back the quality of dogs in our shows and visitors to shows would be deprived of seeing rare breeds,” says Chatterjee.