Chennai, July 14 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Ani- mal Welfare Board will conduct an inspection of ‘Junglii’, considered the country’s first exotic petting zoo. The inspec- tion team will be led by the joint director of the department. Petting zoo is a zoo where visitors, especially children, may handle and feed animals.
Junglii is a large pet shop that doubles up as an indoor zoo exhibiting around 30 exotic animals, including hedgehogs, rab- bits, snakes and different species of birds. It charges anywhere between Rs Rs 399 and Rs 9,999 from the visitors to handle and play with the animals.
A member of the state animal welfare board, Antony Rubin, had filed a complaint with the Animal Welfare Board of India, and its member secretary S.K. Dutta has already written to the re- gional deputy director of the Wild Life Crime Con- trol Bureau and the Tamil Nadu Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services department to investigate Junglii and provide an ac- tion taken report. Rubin told mediaper- sons that permission has to be taken under the
Performing Animals (Reg- istration) Rules if animals are to be exhibited, which Junglii did not take. Rubin said he had paid Rs 3,097 for three persons and a camera to enter Junglii where he saw chil- dren handling exotic ani- mals, including python, which looked tired.
He also said that ex- otic animal trade is a grey area as there are no proper regulations under the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972. However, the owner of Junglii, A.R. Vi- jay, told IANS that they did not violate any law,
adding that they were charging only consult- ing fee and no entry fee, and hence Performing Animals Registration was not applicable on Junglii. He also said that Junglii is only trying to create awareness about exotic animals
