When humans act with cruelty we characterise them as ‘animals’ yet the only animal that displays cruelty is humanity.” The quote aptly sums up the cases of cruelty against animals that the country has been witnessing lately.
The recent gruesome case of a stray dog, ‘Lucky’ dying after being mercilessly beaten up for taking shelter inside a residential complex and another case of a female dog being sexually abused in Mumbai have triggered a debate on how India do not seem to register animal cruelty as a key issue.
Troubled by the incidents, actress-producer Anushka Sharma had even began a campaign recently demanding stricter laws against animal cruelty while other B-Town’s animal lovers like Sonam Kapoor, John Abraham and Malaika Arora too had raised their voice against the incidents of cruelty against animals.
With the country witnessing rise in the number of animal abuse cases, the animal rights activists are now stressing on the need to excogitate on the issue of animal welfare. But this is not the first time that this topic has received widespread attention and gained substantial prominence in media coverage.
The appalling incidents –a horse named Shaktiman dying weeks after being hit over and over with a stick by a BJP lawmaker during a protest in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), a man mercilessly throwing a whimpering dog off the edge of a tall building in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and a stray dog being tied upside down with a tree and beaten mercilessly at a group housing society in Chandigarh—all three episodes happening in the year 2016 are still afresh in people’s mind and had led to the demand of tougher punishment for animal abusers.
But after nearly three years and several protests by various animal rights activists and NGOs demanding tougher laws for animal welfare, the plight of animals in the country does not seem to improve even a little bit.
The animal rights activists believe that lack of awareness among people and lack of effective laws in the country has encouraged the occurrences of incidents of animal abuse over the years. And, not only dogs, the animals that are prone to abuse and cruelty also included horses, cats, monkeys, birds and livestock.
In India, one can get away with inflicting inhuman torture on animals by paying a fine of anything between Rs 10 to Rs 50. For, “The Prevention of Cruelty To Animals Act, 1960” provides for a fine which shall not be less than ten rupees but which may extend to fifty rupees in case of a first offence, and in the case of a second or subsequent offence committed within three years of the previous offence, fine shall not be less than twenty-five rupees but which may extend to one hundred rupees or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with both.
In tricity including Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, the animal rights activists have been receiving several complaints related to animal abuse on daily basis. Recent bizarre cases included a stray dog being beaten to death, a stray dog dying due to acid attack, another stray dog beaten with iron rod, a crow being killed and tied upside down to a tree to scare off other birds, a monkey being poisoned, to name a few.
“Around four-five cases of cruelty against animals are reported to me every week from Chandigarh and Mohali,” says Inder Sandhu, an honorary animal welfare officer of the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Sandhu, who is also the founder of Peedu’s People, working for animal rescue and changing perceptions of people towards stray animals says, “The number of cases reported everyday are just the tip of the iceberg as a large number of cases of animal cruelty that occur daily go unnoticed and are never reported.”
“For instance, as per the law, 750 kg is the maximum weight allowed for horse drawn vehicles. Also, it is illegal to use draught and pack animals from 12 noon to 3 pm during summer season. However, people are not aware of such laws and horses are forced to toil in all weather extremes all day long,” he says.
Talking about the nature of cases of animal abuse, he tells, “Stray dogs being beaten up and killed, pets being kept in cage and not being taken care of by their owners, dog fighting, dog racing, abandoning unproductive cattle, overloaded horse carts and donkey carts, birds starved and confined to wire enclosures at poultry farms, illegal breeding of exotic marine species, bovine species not being taken care of at gaushalas (cow shelter) are some of the complaints that I have come across in this region.”
Sandhu further says that be it dogs or cows, stray animals are mostly mistreated. People do not want any stray animal to sit outside their house or inside residential complex even during rainfall. Cases of arguments between residents are also often reported when animal lovers allow dogs to sit inside residential complex or feed them, he says.
“If someone is an animal lover, his love for the animals should not only be restricted to petting his own pet or feeding the stray dogs, they should also raise their voice against animal abuse,” he adds.
In Chandigarh, around 157 challans have been issued till July this year under the “The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960”. 7 challans were issued in January, 12 in February, 22 in March, 21 in April, 30 in May, 35 in June and 30 in July.
“While 157 challans have been issued till July this year, more than 500 challans were issued to the violators under the Act,” informs Dharminder Dogra, Inspector, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Chandigarh.
He tells, “Maximum challans were issued regarding cruelty on chickens and horses. At most places, chickens are kept in unhygienic conditions, cramped cages and are not fed properly. In case of horses, challans were issued related to overloading of horse drawn vehicles that ply in the city. Most of such vehicles are overloaded and horses are subjected to cruelty. Challans have also been issued to those horse cart drivers, who were caught selling fruits or vegetables by roadside while their horse silently bore the heat.”
“Few complaints of pets being kept in cages and not given food were also received. In such cases, we issue warning to the concerned owner and later, issue challan or take the animal in our custody if required,” he adds.
Interestingly, the animals occupy an important place in our Hindu culture, which firmly believes that animals possess souls just like humans and deserved to be treated well and to be allowed to evolve in their own natural ways.
Particularly, the cows are respected and worshipped in the country and strict laws are in place against cow slaughter and smuggling. Over the past few years, the country has even witnessed cases of lynching in the name of cow protection but the stray cattle searching for food in open garbage dumps, cattle dying due to accidents on roads and poor conditions at gaushalas remain hardly a matter of concern.
Cow lovers do turn up in large numbers at gaushalas to pour their love and feed the bovine species on special occasions like Gopashtami but they usually don’t bother about the food and protection of stray cows.
In a survey report released last year, the Federation of the Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) had stated that it investigated living conditions and practices in 179 gaushalas across 17 states and found 154 (or 86 per cent) got bulls to impregnate cows and extracted milk during lactation periods.
The investigation also found that many of the gaushalas ran as “dairies in disguise with rampant malpractices leading to severe suffering of bovines.”
Another survey made shocking revelations about the cruel practices against egg-laying hens and broiler chickens in the country. The survey by an animal rights group in Maharashtra, Hyderabad and Haryana in 2016 revealed confining hens in small-wired cages not only leads to a number of deaths every year, but also leaves them bleeding, with sores, cracked and deformed feet owing to the wired floor of the cages. Some of them were also found to be missing feathers and suffering from abrasions and skin irritations.
Yet another investigation in several hatcheries and farms in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana revealed cruel practices – which include incubation, sexing, debeaking, burning, drowning among other atrocities – against chicks while they are still alive.
While the dreadful revelations make our heart boil, there has been no end to such cruel practices against animals.
Vikas Luthra, founder of Chandigarh based Furever Friends, a group of animal lovers says, “It has been a long-time demand of animal rights activists and animal lovers to strengthen the existing laws of cruelty against animals. The animal abusers go scot-free due to paltry fines under the existing Act and zero conviction in cases of animal cruelty. The Government of India had proposed to amend the Act few years ago but nothing has been done so far.”
Commenting on how the animal cruelty cases are dealt with, Vikas tells, “Most of the times, the police personnel do not understand the cases of animal cruelty. Due to lack of awareness, they do not know how to go about it and avoid registering such cases. Police generally focus on settlement of dispute between two sides when it comes to complaints regarding animal abuse. Even when either a case is registered by police or a legal notice is sent by an advocate to animal abusers, such cases are not pursued further and does not reach Court at all.”
“We receive about 16 -18 calls a week from Punjab and Chandigarh regarding complaints of animal abuse. Our counseling team of about eight people which includes doctors, police officials among others focuses on the counseling of violators and making them aware about various laws and the punishment they may face for animal cruelty,” Vikas says.
“Besides strengthening the existing laws, the government should give special training to police personnel to deal with the cases of animal cruelty,” he adds.
Notably, the Government of India is working on revising the unjust penalties under the current laws and the statutory advisory body-Animal Welfare Board of India- had recently set up a committee to strengthen the existing laws on animal welfare.
Even as the animal rights activists are pushing for strengthening the laws on animal cruelty, we must also make sure that our moral concerns prompt us to act on indifference towards animals.
The next time you witness any animal being subjected to cruelty, do not forget to report the matter to the concerned authority because, “We must speak for those who can’t speak for themselves”.