did you know that puppies can be purchased wholesale online did you know that these living beings are sold as units that shipping is free for them and that they come with an exchange policy but the commodification of living breathing animals with feelings is not the only horror of online sales animal activist priyachetty rajagopal who started an online petition calling for a ban on the online sale of puppies a couple of days ago says that this also results in the largescale abuse of animals sites like quikr facebook which disallows sale through marketplace but allows listing on groups marshall petzone dogsindiacom dogbazarorg and even b2b sites like indiamartcom all allow pupsdogs to be sold online like objects how often have you bought something online and realised you didnt really need it now think about how dangerous that is when the item youve bought is a living thing with feelings and needs online sale of pets encourages impulsive buying which then results in the abandonment of pets when people realise that they dont really want them such sites also have policies that include guarantees exchange and returnby clauses dogs are not toys to be sold online and exchanged like say a kurta unhygienic puppy mills are thriving because people can anonymously sell puppies online this results in dogs having genetic defects and many times people who order such pups simply do not want them breeding has become a lucrative business thanks to this and many dogs are being stolen so that they can be bred and their pups sold online priya explainsonline sales are thriving despite india having strict laws on animal breeding thats the tragedy says priya adding somehow the government has missed recognising online sales as thirdparty sales so there is no regulation or check on these the dog breeding marketing and sale rules states that basic medical checks must stringently be carried out for genetic defects the puppy has to be at least two months old before it is sold and that a dog can only be made to breed once a year but none of this matters in the online space the government taxes sanitary napkins death and insurance why not breedingthrough her petition priya and others like her want to raise awareness and get the government to tweak the animal welfare law to ban the sale of animals online thus putting an end to the miseries suffered by thousands of hapless dogsthe dangers of selling puppies onlinethese are some of the risks that priya has listed in her online petitionit encourages impulse buys and subsequent dumping of the animalsdelivering puppies across distances results in health issues which can sometimes be fatal pups often die painfully from highlycommunicable diseases such as parvo or cd from being crammed together in a cage with othersno dna testing for genetic defects results in unethical unscientific breedersit creates a mentality that dogs are commodities rather than sentient beingspromotes easy access to exotic breeds that suffer in the indian