Courts have a duty to takecare of animal welfare
A content creator from NOIDA, along with his husky dog Nawab, recently visited the famous Kedarnath shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva (also known as Pashupati, the lord of animals). Many people praised the footage of Nawab paying homage to the stone figure of a seated Nandi (the bull vahana of the god) and receiving blessings from the priest. However, a certain section got offended and filed an FIR against the pet owner (but not against the priest) for hurting religious sentiments. The pet owner, visibly anguished, said that people cannot be so bitter that they don't spare a creature that can't even defend itself.
India reveres dogs. The scriptures stress feeding animals, especially dogs, on Saturday. According to the Puranas, Indra's female dog, Sarama, is the mother of all wild creatures. Many temples have dog murals. The Pandavas erected the KilkariBhairava temple in Delhi. vehicle. The same goes for Gujarat's Goddess Hadkamai, whose vahan is a dog. The Khandoba and Mallana in the Deccan plateau and Revanta on the Eastern plateau (Bihar and Bengal), are all revered as guardian deities of animals.
While Nawab, who had visited many temples before, was getting the wrath of the more vocal, privileged and 'rational' human species, at the same time, the new government in Punjab came up with a 'tuglaqifarmaan' banning the keeping of pets in government accommodations. There is no precedent for such a move. The government was forced to withdraw the order within a week after a justifiable outcry from the pet community. The dust was not even settled when a prominent high-rise in Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, came up with its own set of rules banning entry of pets in green areas, parks, and basements. They also wanted people to take clearance from their RWA before owning a new pet.
Similarly, NOIDA Authority in a tweet prevented entry of animals into one of their parks. These two examples from a state having an ardent animal lover as a Chief Minister show the ignorance of laws and their weak implementation among RWAs and authorities.
Article 51A (g) of the Indian Constitution deems it a fundamental duty of all people to exhibit "compassion for living creatures," which should undoubtedly include companion animals retained by society's residents. The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a statutory body established under Section 4 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, mandates in its 2015 circular that the general body cannot frame bye-laws or amend them in a manner that is at variance with the laws of the country.
Recently, the High Court of Kerala in People For Animals v. State of Kerala (2021), has held that those clauses in the bye-laws of RWAs that seek to prevent owners/occupiers of residential apartments from keeping pet animals of their choice in the residential apartments owned by them, or accessing the elevators and common facilities (which include parks) in the apartment buildings, are illegal, unconstitutional, and unenforceable in law.
The RWAs' colonial mindset stems from the concept of speciesism -'a prejudice or attitude bias in favour of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of another one'. The Kerala High Court has lashed out at this anthropocentric view of RWAs that 'humans alone are seen as morally worthy and privileged to enjoy the bounties that nature has to offer. The court has a duty under the doctrine of parens patriae to take care of the rights of animals, since they are unable to take care of themselves as human beings.' Thankfully we have judiciary but the states should step up to set up active State Animal Welfare Boards.
(The writer is a medical doctor, teacher, disability rights activist and pet lover. The views expressed are personal.)