DON'T BE CRUEL

[Guest guest]

[image: Email This Page] <javascript:SendThisPage();> [image: Print This

Page]<http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061011/asp/atleisure/story_6853219.asp#>

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061011/asp/atleisure/story_6853219.asp

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Don't be cruel

Animal rights activists are upbeat about a recent Calcutta High Court

judgement. But loopholes in the law continue to undermine the cause of

animal welfare, says ** Animal wrongs: A calf being

dragged to be sacrificed to Goddess Durga

 

When the Calcutta High Court delivered a judgement banning the sacrifice of

animals in public view at the Kalighat temple last month, animal rights

activists found a reason to celebrate. After all, the judgement came just

before the World Animal Day on October 4.

 

" The judgement is a step in the right direction, " says Debashis Chakrabarti,

managing trustee of Compassionate Crusaders Trust, an animal welfare

organisation based in Calcutta.

 

Of course, there are several laws in the country to look after the interests

of animals, the most prominent among them being the Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals Act, 1960. But activists feel that apart from the fact that this law

is not implemented effectively, it is also open to abuse. " The PCA Act is a

good Act but is not being properly implemented, " says Brindha Nandakumar,

legal consultant to Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), an animal

welfare organisation based in Bangalore. At the moment, two petitions are

pending in the Supreme Court of India concerning non-implementation of the

PCA Act.

 

The PCA Act also grants some exemptions. Section 14 of the Act states,

" Nothing contained in this Act shall render unlawful the performance of

experiments on animals for the purpose of advancement by new discovery of

physiological knowledge which will be useful for saving of human life " .

Moreover, Section 28 of the Act says, " Nothing contained in this Act shall

render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by the religion

of any community. " Activists feel that these two sections are open to

misuse. As Dr Chinny Krishna, director of Blue Cross in Chennai, one of

India's largest animal welfare organisations, points out, " Sadly, the

biggest offenders in both cases are government institutions and municipal

bodies. " He also emphasises that apart from the lack of enforcement, the

major failure of the law is the extremely low levels of penalties

prescribed.

 

Raj Panjwani, a practising advocate at the Supreme Court of India and author

of the book *Animal Laws of India* stresses that Section 28 of the PCA Act

is open to interpretation and is not without its concomitant difficulties.

" How does one define religion and the specific rituals required for animal

sacrifice, " questions Panjwani.

 

However, some lawyers do not see these sections as posing a threat to animal

welfare. Gitanath Ganguly, advocate at the Calcutta High Court and executive

chairman of Legal Aid Services, West Bengal, explains, " The express

provision of Section 28 of the PCA Act is subject to Article 25 of the

Indian Constitution that prohibits any religious action for the purpose of

public order, morality and health. "

 

It is also true that most people are ignorant of this law. " It is sad that

90 per cent of the lawyers in this country are woefully ignorant of animal

rights laws, " says Pradeep Kumar Nath, founder of the Vishakhapatnam Society

for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Nath cites a specific example

where the law is failing animals. " If we catch an overloaded lorry with

cattle (overloading a vehicle with animals is illegal under the PCA Act),

and file an FIR, seven out of 10 offenders go scot free with a fine of Rs 50

or Rs 250 per lorry, " he says. Nath suggests that mobile courts should be

set up to efficiently deal with cases of cruelty to animals.

 

Some activists feel that the PCA Act should be used along with other animal

laws to help Indian animals. Dr Sandeep Jain, state coordinator of the

People for Animals (Punjab) and a former member of the Animal Welfare Board

of India, says that cases of cruelty to animals can be dealt with under some

sections of the Indian Penal Code. " Sections 279, 289, 428 and 429 of the

IPC can be used to deal with animal cruelty cases where the animal is

crippled or dead, " he mentions. He also points out that the Prevention of

Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules, 1965, and the Performing Animal

(Registration) Rules of 2001 can be of help here.

 

Some, though, are of the opinion that for animal laws in India to be

effective, the parameters of cruelty need to be defined clearly. Sanjay

Upadhyay, a Supreme Court lawyer and managing partner of the Enviro Legal

Defense Firm in Delhi mentions that the PCA Act is liable to be misused

unless specific parameters are laid down to define what constitutes cruelty.

According to Upadhyay, the exemptions should be treated as exceptions to the

rule and not as integral norms. " It is important to understand the different

kinds of cruelty in order to take better legal action and to make the law

more effective, " he says.

 

Until that happens, we will continue to see animals being treated with

contempt and cruelty — goats kept in cramped meat shops, cattle pulling

overloaded carts and chickens being slaughtered in public view.