December 31, 2021
The Majlis is considering legislation that would outlaw keeping animals as pets on the grounds that animals pose a danger to society.
being kept as pets, such as crocodiles and snakes and, ah, cats and dogs, too.
Even cats are included in the ban.
The proposed law pits growing numbers of people with pets against those who consider the practice decadent and hold that under Islamic law dogs, like pigs, are unclean.
According to media reports, 75 Majlis deputies, or one quarter of the Majlis members, recently signed a text entitled “Support for the rights of the population in relation to harmful and dangerous animals.”
In their introduction, the authors condemn the practice of humans living under one roof with domesticated animals as a “destructive social problem.”
The phenomenon, they explain, could “gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life” by “replacing human and family relationships with feelings and emotional relationships toward animals.”
The proposed law would prohibit “importing, raising, assisting in the breeding of, breeding, buying or selling, transporting, driving or walking, and keeping in the home wild, exotic, harmful and dangerous animals.”
It lists the animals to be banned as “crocodiles, turtles, snakes, lizards, cats, mice, rabbits, dogs and other unclean animals, as well as monkeys.”
Offenders would risk a fine equivalent to 10 to 30 times the “minimum monthly working wage” of about $100 and the “confiscation” of the animal.
In addition, vehicles used to transport an animal would be confiscated for three months.
The bill has sparked criticism in the press, mockery on social networks and anger among many residents of the capital.
“These projects will certainly cause chaos, corruption and collective disobedience to this law because … living with animals is now a cultural phenomenon,” warned the reformist daily Sharq.
Some internet users reacted with sarcasm.
“How many times have cats sought to devour you so that you consider them wild, harmful and dangerous?” journalist Yeganeh Khodami asked on Twitter.
Another posted a photo of his kitten with the message: “I have renamed my cat ‘Criminal’ since I heard of this proposed law.”
In the face of the public outcry, few parliamentarians appear willing to strongly defend the bill.
“I agree with the project in general, but I certainly disagree with some of its clauses,” said the head of the Majlis Judicial Committee, Musa Ghazanfarabadi, who was among those sponsoring the text.
“It is just a bill, and whether it passes is another matter,” he told Agence France Press (AFP).
Another lawmaker from Tehran, the environmentalist Somayeh Rifiei, said she believes that a law is needed on which animals can be kept and which cannot. “No one can deny the services that animals provide to humans, but this area must be regulated,” she said.
In a phone interview with the Didban-e Iran news website, Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali defended the proposed legislation by claiming a dog had killed children in a Tehran park. But, in fact, the main reason for Iran’s conservatives is that keeping dogs is a symbol of Westernization and has become an act of defiance for many.
Although the bill names all kinds of pets, even including crocodiles and monkeys, the main concern of parliamentarians is dogs. In July, the Kayhan newspaper called dog walking in cities a “major problem” and urged the Judiciary to keep dogs away from public spaces. The Tehran City Council later banned animals from public places.
Keeping dogs, always common in Iran’s rural areas and on farms, has only in recent years become popular in urban areas.
Cats have never been a problem and have always been a part of urban and rural life, so it isn’t clear why the bill would ban cats as well.
Under the bill, anyone walking a pet in the street could face a three-month jail term, or the confiscation of their car for three months if taking their pet for a ride.
Even the conservative Asr-e Iran website attacked the proposal November 17 as a waste of parliament’s time. “Who is going to protect people’s livelihood?” it asked in a commentary. “Why don’t you propose plans for protecting people’s assets in the stock market? Or why are you not doing something to increase the value of the national currency?”
The draft bill would allow citizens to apply for exemptions from the law, presumably for such cases as seeing eye dogs. It also exempts animals used by police, health agencies and the military.