Saudi Arabia bans sale of pet dogs and cats

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia's religious police have announced a ban on selling pet cats and dogs or exercising them in public in Riyadh.

The reason behind the rule was a rising habit among men to use pets in public "to make passes on women and disturb families,"according to Othman Al Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa.

He told the Saudi edition of Al Hayat daily that the commission has merely started to reinforce an old religious edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars.