Eating meat from dogs, cats and other rabies-carrying animals is now banned in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, following intense lobbying by animal rights activists, an official said on Tuesday.
Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung said he signed the law on Monday, a month after promising to end the cat, dog and bat meat trade in the city.
“I signed the law (…) which prohibits the sale of animals carrying rabies for food purposes, whether live animals, meat or other products, raw or processed,” Mr. Pramono said in a statement published on his social networks.
According to a document consulted by AFP, the law provides for a transitional period of six months before the application of this ban.
The move was welcomed by animal rights activists, who called it a step in the right direction.
“This policy is in line with the Constitution’s mandate to protect all Indonesians and make Indonesia a just and civilized nation,” animal rights group Dog Meat Free Indonesia (DMFI) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Indonesia is one of the few countries that still allows the sale of dog and cat meat, but a campaign against the practice is gaining ground. Some cities, including Semarang in central Java, have imposed local bans on the trade in recent years.
Although dogs are generally considered unclean animals and rarely adopted as pets in Indonesia, their meat remains a delicacy for some communities.
A cheap source of protein, dog meat is also consumed in several other Asian countries.
