Whipping for keeping dogs?

Iran appears likely to legislate a law to sentence dog owners to 74 lashes with a whip or impose a penalty of a maximum of 3,600 dollars.

The Iranian parliament submitted a bill to ban owning dogs or walking dogs in public places. This bill raised by 32 parliament members will be flogged or fined to dog owners and require dogs to be abandoned in zoos, forests, or the wilderness.

Islamic tradition in Iran regards dogs as unclean animals. Senior religious leaders in Islam interpreted keeping pet dogs as going against Islamic laws. Yet some of the wealthy are gradually following a trend of keeping pet dogs. Up until now, the police had stopped at cautioning owners who had come outdoors with their pet or confiscating the dogs. Yet this bill put into law that “coming outdoors to public places with pet animals such as dogs or monkeys poses a damage to Islamic culture and is harmful to the hygiene and peace of mind of young women and children.

The Guardian said, "Hardliners in Iran are particularly worried about what they call a `cultural invasion` from the west and see pet ownership, especially dogs, as an imitation of western culture...Proposed law to prevent Iranians from keeping animals deemed unclean is latest crackdown on ‘western cultural invasion.`"