Lawmakers in Iran have proposed a bill to criminalize dog ownership.

The law states that owning a dog “poses a cultural problem” and is “a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West.”

Many believe the purpose of this “war on terrier” is to distract Iranians from the bigger problems their country faces. The Iranian government gets billions of dollars in petrodollars every year, and uses that money to build weapons of mass destruction instead of using the money to better the lives of their citizens. And now the regime has made the elimination of dogs a priority, instead of the elimination of unemployment and poverty. 

Ten days ago, companies from over 30 countries, including Germany, Britain, and France participated in the Iran Oil Show in Tehran, despite U.S. and E.U. sanctions.

By continuing to trade with the Iranian regime, Western companies are enabling this disregard for human rights to continue.

“Iranian officials find themselves in a cultural war with the West and see what they're offering as an ‘Islamic lifestyle’ failing measurably.”

For much of the past decade, the Iranian government has tolerated what it considers a particularly depraved and un-Islamic vice: the keeping of pet dogs.

During periodic crackdowns, police have confiscated dogs from their owners right off the street; and state media has lectured Iranians on the diseases spread by canines. The cleric Gholamreza Hassani, from the city of Urmia, has been satirized for his sermons railing against "short-legged" and "holdable" dogs. But as with the policing of many other practices (like imbibing alcoholic drinks) that are deemed impure by the mullahs but perfectly fine to many Iranians, the state has eventually relaxed and let dog lovers be.

Those days of tacit acceptance may soon be over, however.