20101106
Nation

Nairobi — Like a new father, Ben Samwel proudly shows off "his" newest brood -- a litter of eight 10-day-old black-and-white terrier puppies.

Their eyes barely open, the palm-sized pups suckle and squirm against their mother's belly. Three months from now, the wide-eyed puppies will be peering through car windows on Peponi Road, dangling from the end of Samwel's thrusting arm, hoping to find new homes.

Samwel is a puppy broker - a self-proclaimed "hustler." He has been breeding and selling his Shepherds, sausage dogs and Pomeranians to motorists near Westgate Mall for about a decade. And he's not the only one. The growing number of hawkers also sell rabbits, guinea pigs and exotic birds - despite city bylaws which prohibit it.

That is why for the most part, brokers like Samwel prefer to keep their breeding locations under wraps. Samwel agreed to an interview on the condition the Saturday Nation would not reveal where he breeds his dogs.

On paper, the City Council of Nairobi can arrest unauthorised hawkers selling unlicensed animals. But they rarely do, causing animal welfare groups to raise the alarm over both the animals' welfare and suspected corruption within the council.

Six months ago, Frank Mukwanja, the outreach manager for the African Network for Animal Welfare, launched an investigation into animal hawking along Peponi Road. "The animals change hands a lot, and that makes them very uncomfortable," he said. "It's traumatising being handled car window to car window, new dogs are forced together in small boxes, and some are sick."

The puppy mill industry has been gaining momentum recently, Mukwanja said. No one really has much information about how it works, or how to stop it. So he hired Musa Karanja, a street savvy casual labourer and animal welfare volunteer from Muslim village in Kawangware.

Karanja, also known as daktari wa mbwa in his community for his role promoting animal health and welfare with ANAW, is an unassuming father of two young children.

He was familiar with the street language and wouldn't look suspicious, Mukwanja thought. Karanja settled in on Peponi Road to pose as a hawker selling cigarettes, sweets and handkerchiefs. For two weeks, he monitored the animal hawkers and reported back to ANAW.

Karanja says the men asked him to pay a Sh500 "protection fee" to the askaris to avoid arrest for selling in an undesignated hawking zone. During the two weeks he was there, Karanja, said he did not see one askari come to enforce the bylaws.

"That's when we realised the city council has a hand in the street business," Mukwanja said. Karanja found it difficult to get infiltrate the tight-knit community.

"They didn't want new people there," he said. When Karanja refused to pay up, he was forced to leave. The City Council was reluctant to speak to the issue. Town Clerk, Philip Kisia ignored an interview request. Only after numerous phone calls and interview requests did chief public relations officer, Wilfred Marube, agree to comment.

Marube couldn't confirm or deny that any money was changing hands. "I won't say that it is city council receiving the money, but it might be two or three individuals and if it is, then the law can be used against them," Marube said, adding he would be interested in seeing the ANAW report.

So why is the City Council permitting animal hawking to continue? Marube says the council is only able to issue lax hawking violation fines that aren't severe enough to give hawkers an incentive to stop. "We're talking about human beings who have to earn a living," he said.

"If they sell two or three dogs at Sh20,000 or Sh30,000, that's Sh60,000. Then you're fined in courts how much? Only Sh3,000? The action is not punitive enough." Marube also said City Council cannot be held entirely responsible for the continuation of animal hawking.

"We need to also blame the people buying these dogs." But animal welfare groups say puppy mills are not sustainable. "They're flooding an already saturated market," said Jean Gilchrist, director of the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals.

The KSPCA is already overflowing with stray, unwanted and abused animals. Putting an end to puppy mills would help get more of these dogs off the streets and into good homes, Gilchrist said. Mukwanja is optimistic that an animal welfare clause in the new Constitution will help local governments to tackle the issue in the future.

The clause states that each county will be responsible for caring, housing and controlling animals. Previously, the central government was responsible. He said the system would also streamline puppy mill animal welfare efforts because of the complex breeder-broker-buyer-transport chain.

The ANAW investigation revealed puppies are not necessarily sold by their owners. Instead, most are bred, transported and sold by different people, with brokers facilitating transactions in between, Mukwanja said. Still, Mukwanja knows brokers like Samwel won't stop breeding overnight.

And he's hesitant to demonise individual puppy sellers, instead, favouring a broader solution. "There should be a procedure of you being an approved breeder. How can we regulate that breeding sector? How can we turn this into a business and not on the streets?" he mused.

Back at his breeding kennels, Samwel said he's just about ready to call it quits, anyway. While he has been fined before, he said it's not so much the threat from authorities who are forcing him to pack it in. It's the stress and uncertainty of the business. "You raise dogs and when there's a disease outbreak, they all die. I lost a puppy yesterday. It was a Japanese Spitz," he said casually.

He has a tiny Pomeranian that could be next. He said it had been sick since the day before and the vet was on his way. But the way the tiny pup shook and shivered suggested it had been ill a lot longer. It seemed like it wanted to eat, but instead just stared into its food bowl as half a dozen boiled chicken heads stared back.

"When I've saved enough cash, then I'll look for something else," he said. "I'd like to have a shop and sell cereals. I think the money will be more reliable."