Cruelty Against Animals in India

In this blog-post, Disha Pareek, a student of RGNUL, Punjab discusses cruelty against animals in India and laws that are prevalent to combat this issue.  

Introduction

Mahatma Gandhi once rightly said, “The greatness of a nation is judged by the way it treats its animals.” The history of the movement in the context of protecting the rights of animals dates back to the 3^rd century when Ashoka explicitly banned the killing of any animal in his kingdom.

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.[1]

Under the second act, which is the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Section 50 authorizes the Director, or the Chief Wildlife Warden or any officer authorized by them or any forest officer or any police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector to arrest any person without warrant and detain him, but the pre-requisite is that the officer should have reasonable grounds and have reason to believe that the concerned person committed such an act.[2]

Section 51(1) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972  states that any person who contravenes any provision of the Act or any rule or order made thereunder shall be guilty of offenses against this Act and shall, on conviction, be punishable with imprisonment for three years or fined which may extend to twenty-five thousands or with both.

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.[3]

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’.[4]

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.

Protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

This act is meant for the protection of wild animals and birds, and there are provisions that safeguard the interests of the animals.

• It prohibits the sacrifice of animals, by Section 39 of the act there is a strict prohibition on any injury to the animals and the penalty is mentioned in section 51 of the act.
• There is also a ban on keeping any Indian bird under the act. If anybody wishes to keep a permissible bird he has to comply strictly with Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1956.
• Police powers: Section 50 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 authorizes a police officer to arrest any person without a warrant.
• Monkeys cannot be displayed or owned, and are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act as well.

A Look into the Real Problems

There are various issues attached with the problem of cruelty to animals. They are:

• Cosmetic testing on animals: 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.
• 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.
• Keeping animals in battery cages: India is the third largest producer of eggs and around 70% of eggs comes from commercial poultry farms. Section 11 (e) specifically talks about the space which an animal should get, but the cages are very congested, and it does not allow the right to movement of animals, meaning thereby to contradict the act clearly.
• 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.

The Real State of Affairs

The recent death of Shaktiman (a stallion) who served the Uttarakhand police force highlights the need to radicalize the movement for the protection of animals against any cruelty. BJP leader Ganesh Joshi attacked it during a protest. Every day a lot many innocent animals face such cruelty, but the offenders get away with it as the fines provided under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act are very low, and therefore people do not hesitate to cause any harm to animals. Only enacting a law is not enough, but its enforcement in the real sense is important. Since it is about the rights of animals very few people know about the rights of the animals and those who know would rarely take a stand. Firstly, there is a lack of synchronization in the different departments concerned. The most plausible explanation could be that for the government there is no or very little pressure on this issue as compared to the other ones, say, reservation, LGBT rights, etc.

The major loophole that needs immediate attention is the amount of compensation/fine imposed on any offender under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1956 is peanuts. The amount of fine ranges between Rs 10 and 50 will not hinder any cruelty towards animals. Today, everybody is in a rush, and the youth specifically has no care for anybody, and 70% of the accidents of animals are caused due to rash and negligent driving.

The offenses under the act are either cognizable or non-cognizable, Clause of Section 11 and Section 12 are cognizable, wherein the punishment is negligible, even the imprisonment is just for three months. Although under Section 38 of the act major punishments are covered. However, these punishments are non-cognizable, meaning that the police cannot arrest a person without a warrant. The Government can play a pivotal role in this context and can Suo moto action (independently) when they come across such happenings. Also, under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1956, there is a provision for the requirement of setting up of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in every state but leaving a few states there is no such society in the rest of the country. [5]

What Reasonable Steps Can be Taken

Banning of Jallikattu

The Supreme Court gave a very important judgment in which it banned the sport of Jallikattu practiced in the state of Mumbai and Tamil Nadu.

The Animal Welfare Board of India, a statutory body, established under section 4 of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1956 challenged the 2007 judgment of Madras High Court K. Muniasamythevar v Dy. Superintendent of Police[6] in which Jallikattu sport was allowed. But the Supreme Court banned the sport and struck down the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikattu Act, 2009.

Madras High Court Notice

Two MBBS students threw a stray dog from a terrace, and video graphed such a cruel act. Afterwards, a petition was filed by an honorary animal welfare officer of Animal Welfare Board of India because the offenders got an interim bail by a lower court.

The Madras High Court issued a notice to the government of Tamil Nadu for the cancellation of the bail granted to them. It is the judiciary that can perform yeoman’s service by recognizing that such cruel actions deserve immediate and harsh action despite past criminal behavior so that a deterrent effect is created in the society.

Conclusion and Suggestions

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. However, in cases like Bharat Amratlal Kothari v Dosukhan Sindhi[7], which amounted to major cruelty only a paltry fine of  Rs 50 was imposed on the defendants.

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.

Footnotes:

[1] Section 43, Criminal Procedure Code, 1973

[2] Available at http://www.peopleforanimalsindia.org/animal-protection-laws-in-india.php

[3] Section 11, Prevention of  Cruelty to Animals, 1960

[4] Available at http://www.petaindia.com/issues/animals-in-entertainment/

[5] Available at http://envfor.nic.in/legis/awbi/awbi01.html

[6] W.A. no 119 of 2006

[7] S.L.P. (criminal) No 198 of 2009

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