Why Italy has banned yoga with puppies – Firstpost

Yoga has been one of India’s biggest exports. The West has taken to it and some have added their own twist to the exercise. There’s beer yoga, yoga with goats, yoga with puppies and whatnot. But Italy is cracking down and earlier this week, the country’s health ministry decided to ban puppy yoga.

This yoga involves playful pups who usually wander freely while humans practice their asanas. It has become a rage in the UK, Europe and the US. But animal welfare groups have been raising their voice against it.

Yoga is healthy for people, not puppies

In a note circulated on April 29, Italy’s health ministry banned “puppy yoga”. It said that only adult dogs can take part to protect the health of animals and the well-being of attendees, according to a report in the BBC.

The ministry said that it was aware that organizers borrowed the pups from breeders and that they were not transported safely. While yoga with dogs can be considered “assisted animal therapy” by law it can only be carried out by fully-grown canines.

Regional authorities have been instructed to carry out regular checks to ensure that the practice of puppy yoga is discontinued.

The Italian government’s recent announcement was welcomed by animal welfare groups and animal rights activists, who long advocated banning this “unhealthy” practice.

Italy’s National Board for Animal Protection quoted dog expert Giusy D’Angelo as saying by the BBC that puppy yoga was a “physically and mentally stressful experience” for animals and “only brings financial advantages to those who run the classes”.

Exploiting puppies

D’Angelo said people in such classes often in a “wave of emotion” get carried away and adopt the puppies “without really thinking” of the consequences and implications of their decisions for themselves and the pups.

It is not Italy alone. In the UK, there have been concerns about using puppies during yoga.

In July 2023, the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) invited people to consider alternative activities to puppy yoga.

An investigation by ITV last year revealed how puppies were exploited. Undercover footage showed puppies in the yoga classes being picked up while sleeping, and in one case not having access to water in case it made them “pee” during the class.

While organizers claim that yoga is good for the puppies’ socialisation, the RSPCA said that there is nothing in the environment which we would consider to be beneficial to the health, welfare or the behavioral lifelong development of these animals.

Esme Wheeler, science and policy officer for dog welfare and behavior at the RSPCA was quoted as saying by ITV, “This is entertainment, in my view, which is operating under the guise of socialization. But this is not to the benefit of the dogs.”

In an opinion piece in The GuardianWheeler wrote, “litters of puppies” as young as six weeks are “put to work for hours each day in some places, allegedly deprived of water (to prevent urination), woken from sleep (critically important for puppies) and being passed around the people in attendance”.

Not only the rooms in which they are made to work are “overly warm” and suited to the needs of humans but they are also detrimental to the health of puppies, she added.

Yoga and other animals

While puppy yoga is under the scanner, yoga with other animals has also gained popularity. There is kitten yoga, rabbit yoga, and in some cases, lemur yoga and goat yoga.

With inputs from agencies

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