Article on animal are being treated cruelly for various human needs
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“The greatness of a nation is judged by the way it treats its animals”, said Mahatma Gandhi once as he was leading India through the country’s fight for independence from the colonial rulers. But long before animal activism became a global movement and animal laws were enacted in India in their present form, there are pointers that India as a nation has revered nature, its flora and fauna. The earliest laws of conservation date back to as early as 3rd Century B.C when Emperor Ashoka had banned killing and hunting of all animals in his kingdom. Images depicted in ancient Indian art and wall carvings, the notes and stories mentioned in Indian scriptures and fables like Panchatantra and Hitopdesha, all of these reflect the ethos of conservation and reverence for animals. But as India moves ahead in the rat-race for being a developed country, morals and ethos are being left behind and superseded by an insensitivity and egotistical attitude that is hard to comprehend.
Stand up against Cruelty to Animals
“Unseen they suffer, unheard they cry
In Agony they linger, in loneliness they die
Does it mean anything to you or anyone who passes by?”
These words penned above epitomize the pain, the suffering that millions of animals endure at the hand of humans every single day.
Though killing or torturing humans is considered to be a crime instantaneously, many amongst us perhaps pay mute witnesses to incidences of animal cruelty happening all around us. The fact is that laws do exist in this country of ours for protection of cruelty towards animals. The main laws are The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. However few people and even fewer policemen and lawyers are aware of these laws and in the wake of human ignorance on these laws, animals are helpless and fall victims to needs and deeds of humans.
Overloading donkeys with bricks, exhausting the elephant and camels with over riding in a a mela or at a tourist spot, whipping the horse and the bullock pulling the tonga or the cart, stuffing the cages with chickens in your local meat shop, transporting cattle and livestock one on top of the other in trucks while being taken to slaughterhouses or even treating your pet with neglect- not providing him food or water or chaining him in the sun, killing, maiming beating an animal…each of these acts is an act of animal cruelty under either Section 11 or Section 12 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (PCA Act 1960).