In my opinion, only people with the capacity to render pets should have a license to keep them. This will limit the abuse of pet animals if they are under the care of competent companions. Pets are not just animals; they are more sensitive and require more care and affection than street animals.

In addition to that, there are other loopholes such as to the lack of comprehensive rules for commercial pet shops and breeders prescribed in the Act. This creates uncertainty and a chance for abusing animals in the name of breeding. Commercial pet owners, especially the ones at Katabon, cage the animals for hours in scorching heat and freezing cold and often get away with it unsupervised.

An in-depth regulation should also be provided for commercial pet owners to hold them accountable for failing to provide adequate care for the animals. Another problem lies with section 19, which makes animal cruelty a non-cognizable and bailable offence, weakening the gravity of the crime. The more concerning part is the applicability of these laws. Every day, there are cases of pet abuse around us; unfortunately, very few of them are reported.

Nowadays, people take the severity of animal abuse only when the videos go viral on social media. This overlooks many pet animal cases which deserve equal attention.