Iran to start confiscating and killing any dogs found outside, or in people's cars

[Anonymous]

Iran is again cracking down on people with pet dogs, viewed as unclean in Islam, but Soroush Mobaraki says sales are booming despite fears the pooches might be arrested and their owners fined.

For decades, keeping dogs as pets was a rarity and thus tolerated in Iran, where the Islamic beliefs cherished by the vast majority of traditional Iranians consider dogs as najis, or unclean.

Guard dogs, sheep dogs and hounds have always been acceptable, but the soaring number of pets acquired by a middle class keen to imitate Western culture has alarmed the authorities in recent years.

They have now criminalized walking dogs in public, or driving them around the city.

Police will confront those who walk their dogs in the streets. Cars carrying dogs will also be impounded, deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan said in April, according to the Fars news agency.

Confiscating pets without a judicial verdict is unacceptable, Keshavarz said in remarks reported by Bahar daily on May 4, arguing that owners can file for losses under the civil liability law if their pooch is taken away illegally.

Previous crackdowns had seen dogs returned home after their owners paid a fine and signed a pledge to observe the moral code. But some say that is no longer the case.

Owners are being told that their dogs will be killed, and no paper (confirming the confiscation) is given to them, a Tehran pet hospital chief, Payam Mohebi, was quoted as saying by Bahar.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/variety/2013/06/06/Tight-leash-Iran-cracks-down-on-thriving-pet-trade.html

OMG, those poor dog owners! I can't even imagine what I would do/feel if someone came and took my dog away and said they were going to kill it.