(IN) Vets or Butchers!! A question of professional ehtics?

[Guest guest]

As elephant marketing business is the most profitable profession in Kerala

during this festival season there is a mad and ruthless competition among a

section of Animal Husbandry Officials and a handful of corrupt and

unscrupulous 'vets' for their pound of illegal flesh. Some of these

officials have somehow managed to infiltrate into District SPCAs donning the

garb of " experts " and give away fitness certificates to elephants for a price.

The AWBI should immediately intervene and purify these societies and revamp them

as per the SPCA Rules 2001.

All those sick, ailing,wounded elephants and those in musth were given

fitness certifcates-- by these few vets-- have become highly aggressive,made

immense damage to public property and killed many people. All these happen on

account of the so called 'fitness certificates' given by the above small group.

Sometimes it will be the same vet who isues the fitness certificates saying

that the elephant is healthy, darts it when it sudenly becomes violent,

then treats it or kills it as per the wish of the custodian of the

animal. It will be the same vet or his group that does the post-mortem and

gives a clean chit to the owner so that no criminal case is filed against

anyone!

 

Their power and influence in the Government is evident from the fact that

so far not even a single criminal case was filed against this " fitness

certificate racket " in the State, by the State Animal Husbandry Directorate or

the Police.

 

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Tusker Gopalakrishnan cremated

 

Express News

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First Published : 28 Mar 2009 08:22:00 AM IST

Last Updated : 28 Mar 2009 11:18:21 AM IST

 

KOLLAM: Tusker Gopalakrishnan, which was killed in a road accident, was

cremated on Friday evening in the presence of thousands of grief-stricken

devotees and elephant-lovers. The poojaris and devotees of Asramam Sree

Krishnaswamy Temple lit the pyre around 5.45 p.m. on the temple premises. It

will take three days for the pyre to extinguish. A total of 14 tonnes of

firewood, in addition to 100 kg of sandal wood, ‘ramacham’ and ‘karpooram’

were used to prepare the pyre. A post-mortem was conducted on the body of

the tusker in the afternoon by a team of doctors led by veterinary surgeon

Aravind. In the morning, the body of Gopalakrishnan was laid on the temple

premises for the devotees and public to pay their homage. Ministers P.K.

Gurudasan and N.K. Premachandran also came to the temple to pay homage to

the elephant. As a mark of respect, the temple authorities have decided to

cancel the ritual ‘anayoottu’ (serving food to elephants) being held as part

of the Kollam Pooram, which falls on Vishu Day this year.

 

* Demand to prosecute SPCA *

 

Meanwhile, a controversy has been triggered in the manner in which the

tusker was treated after the accident.

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P.K. Jacob, who is the chairman of Kollam Elephant Squad-DAYA and

also the state president of Kerala Gazetted Officers Union, has demanded a

judicial probe into the death of the elephant and to prosecute the SPCA

(Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) for its role on the loss of

the life of the elephant. In a statement issued here on Friday, Jacob said

that the manner in which the elephant was removed from the accident spot was

against veterinary ethics. The elephant was shifted using crane like a dead

body and transported in a lorry which caused delay in treatment for hours.

He said that he treated the elephant as per the instruction from the

Devaswom Board veterinary officer Saseendra Dev early morning. But the

doctors from the SPCA came and discontinued his treatment. When they tried

to lift and shift the elephant by using the crane, he had warned against the

action as it would complicate the injuries. However, the warning was

ignored. Jacob alleged that the condition of the elephant worsened owing to

the action of the SPCA. He even questioned the propriety of the doctors

from SPCA conducting the post-mortem.