Puppy yoga experienced quite a boom in recent years, while also drawing a lot of criticism due to animal welfare concerns. The critics of this trend have won in Italy, where puppy yoga has officially been banned in an attempt to protect the health of animals.
Puppy yoga usually has the same structure as the traditional yoga classes, while puppies roam around freely and are even incorporated in yoga poses. The advocates for puppy yoga insisted it’s a form of “animal-assisted therapy” that can improve wellbeing, but they weren’t loud enough in Italy, where this practice has just been banned.
Italy’s Ministry of Health took action against puppy yoga classes, and the National Board for Animal Protection welcomed their ban. This decision comes after animal rights organizations around the world had campaigned for a boycott, claiming that this activity only exists for the financial gain of yoga studios, without contributing to the wellbeing of animals.
Italy isn’t the first country to consider taking action against puppy yoga. UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has also been critical of this movement and advised yoga lovers to consider the alternative, saying “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.”
