ANIMAL WELFARE FORTNIGHT-(14TH JANUARY TO 30TH JANUARY) WITH RESPECT TO WELFARE ISSUES IN INDIA
Compiled & Edited by-DR RAJESH KUMAR SINGH ,JAMSHEDPUR, JHARKHAND,INDIA 9431309542,rajeshsinghvet@gmail.com
Introduction:
Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, once observed “The greatness of a Nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.
Animal Welfare Fortnight is celebrated every year from January 14 to January 30 to create awareness in the civic society to treat all animal life with respect, kindness and compassion.
The history of the movement in the context of protecting the rights of animals dates back to the 3rd century when Ashoka explicitly banned the killing of any animal in his kingdom.
Animals have contributed immensely for the welfare of human beings from the dawn of civilization. It is the obligation of human beings not to abuse and exploit animals for their greed. Even during the present time, it is all the more important that we human beings learn to co-exist with the animals and it is our moral duty to see that the animals are treated humanely and with compassion. The concept of preventing cruelties to animals will be greatly served through awareness campaigns and imparting human education.
But in today’s competitive world, no heed is paid to basic morals and ethos and in a rat-race to earn more and easy money, animals become the targets. They are exploited since they are mute spectators and are incapable of raising their voice against these cruelties.
To (or “intending to”) curb the menace of cruelty against animals, various laws have been initiated by the Central Government, but the main laws concerning prevention of animal cruelty are the ‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960′ and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Under the former act, police have all powers to arrest an offender who is found to be involved in an illegal activity or even involved in cruelty against animals. The act also provides a provision wherein a private individual under the provisions of Section 43 of Cr.P.C. can detain or cause to detain such individual involved in any such act.
Cruelty to Animals means animal abuse that is knowingly inflicted upon animals by human beings for any gain.
Analysis of ‘Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1960.’
• Section 11 (a) to (o) has enumerated different forms of cruelty to the animals.
• The law strictly prohibits unnecessary cruelty to animals and lays down guidelines for transportation of animals.
• It is illegal to kill homeless animals.
• The law strictly prohibits treating animals cruelly and has also laid down the ways in which an animal could be exploited or abused, like beating, kicking, over-riding or torturing by which it suffers pain unnecessarily, or keeping an animal chained for an unreasonable period and all, these acts would result in punishment including a fine ranging between Rs 10 and 50 and for a subsequent offence, a fine between Rs 25 and 100 or imprisonment for three months.
6 rights every animal lover from India should know
If you like working for stray animals, you ought to know these laws to save yourself from any kind of harassment!
In India, animal lovers feeding or caring for strays are met with unbelievable hatred since strays are seen as a threat. People fail to understand that the voiceless animals are living beings who feel the same amount of pain and sadness as humans, and in some cases, even more.
However, there are some rules put forward by the Constitution of India in favour of the voiceless and those who are working towards the welfare of these animals.
With the increasing amount of animal cruelty in India, an animal lover should be aware of these rules:
- The Delhi High Court states that there are no laws that prohibit people from feeding stray animals.
In fact, feeding strays is both lawful and helpful since it makes it easy to confine them to one particular area that they belong to. This facilitates efficient birth control and annual vaccination. - It is a criminal offense to feed poisonous food to stray animals.
A person who is caught doing so can be charged under Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, which extends to the whole of India, except Jammu and Kashmir. - It is illegal to maim or cause any injury to any animal.
Sections 428 and 429 of the Indian Penal Code and the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 make it illegal to maim or cause injury to any animal. It is also illegal for vehicles to purposefully injure dogs, cats and cows on the streets. A person who is caught violating these laws can be reported to the local animal protection group and to the police. A case can also be filed under the above mentioned sections.
The punishment for all of the above acts is a fine of at least Rs. 2000 and/or a jail term of up to five years.4. No sterilized dogs can be relocated from their areaUnder the Government of India, Animal Birth Control Rules 2001, no sterilized dogs can be relocated from their area. As per five different High Court Orders, sterilized dogs have to remain in their original areas. In case a dog is not sterilized, the society can just ask an animal welfare organization to sterilise and vaccinate the dog. - The Animal Welfare Board of India issues IDs for people who feed stray animals.
These IDs help people who want to protect the strays from abusive animal-haters.
The Board also organizes Animal Welfare Fortnight, which do not gain the kind of attention that they should. - The implementation of these rules largely depend on the NGOs.
Stray dogs are protected under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and rules enacted under Section 38 of the act, particularly, the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001; Indian Penal Code, sections 428 & 429 and Article 51A (g) of the Constitution. Despite such extensive laws, people go free without punishment because bringing them to justice is a difficult task.
We in our daily lives encounter overloaded donkeys, bullock carts on the roads. But we voluntarily chose to ignore this sight and remain silent, primarily because we are mostly not aware of the laws on animal cruelty and secondly human beings treat animals as commodities and machines.
Under the light of the statute, the establishment of the Animal Welfare Board took place. There are also provisions that define the terms like ‘captive animal’ or ‘domestic animal’.
Section 3 of the Act has laid down various duties of a person to take care of an animal and not to harm him or inflict injuries upon him. Here, the functions performed by the Animal Welfare Board becomes prominent, some of them are -:
• To advise the Central Government on making of such rules that will prevent unnecessary pain to the animals. But particularly when they are being transported from one place to another
• The board will take all the possible steps to ameliorate the pitiable condition of the animals by providing sheds for animals to live in and by providing veterinary assistance to them at any hour.
• To give all kinds of assistance, including financial aid to animal welfare organizations, so that other such organizations are set up to work under the supervision of the board.
Dawn the line in every state of India, an state animal welfare board has been constituted which are run under the guidance of AWBI. Similarly at the district level there is a body named DSPCA which is concerned with the issues related to animal welfare at the district level.
A Look into the Real Problems
There are various issues attached with the problem of cruelty to animals. They are:
• Cosmetic testing on animals:
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• Now and then, millions of animals are poisoned and killed in barbaric and cruel tests that attempt to test the dangerous effects of consumer products and their ingredients. To measure toxic effects, different animals like mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and other animals are forced to inhale massive quantities of a test substance. Even after it has been established that tests on animals are incapable of predicting the results of human skin and body and the availability of testing methods without the use of animals, there is a continuance of such heartless practice. But as a relief to animals and the animal rights activists, the Centre has adopted the rules that impose a nation-wide ban on testing cosmetics on the animal. The ban came after the rules of the Bureau of Indian Standard were revised. However, the law has many areas in which there are many loopholes like the ban is partial in the sense that the import of animal-tested products is still legal, and so there’s a need for a law that will also prohibit the sale and import of animal tested products.
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• Neglect of stray dogs after the procedure of birth control: There is an urgent need to amend the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules enacted in the year 2001 as under these rules animal organizations after the completion of animal birth control surgeries, which is basically sterilizing and vaccinating them do not provide any special treatment and release them in the area from where they were picked. Since the surgery makes them vulnerable, they are subjected to attacks and cruel treatment.
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• The cruelty on elephants: The plight of elephants in our country is shameful. On one side they are forced to perform dangerous stunts in circuses but even then no proper care is taken. On the other hand, captive animals are used for tourist purposes. But in 2013, the Animal Welfare Board of India has banned the registration of animals for such purposes.
What Reasonable Steps Can be Taken—
The judiciary has a very important function, i.e., if the punishments for such kinds of offense can be made stricter, then the people will try to take care and will not ruthlessly kill innocent animals. In 2011, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was amended and renamed as Indian Animal Welfare Act as a need was felt to change the old law. Despite so many laws the drive will only come when people collaborate with animal rights bodies and organizations and make efforts to improvise the pitiable condition of animals. Apart from this, government and non-government agencies can take steps to correct the system.
Another suggestion to improve the system would be to establish and strengthen the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animal, an NGO that can work in every state separately with no interference of the state. There is also a need to make sure that the State Animal Welfare Board runs properly, because in many states there is no such board and where there is one, it hasn’t met for years.
These little changes by different groups and stakeholders can change the scenario for animals in India, and no cruelty of any sort would be present in our society.
Reference-On Request
