Animal welfare: A high time for action
In a world where relationships between humans and animals are getting more interdependent, there are emerging pressing demands to ensure optimal animal welfare.
Domestic and wildlife animals have their importance in the contexts in which they live. China started to hunt sparrows because of anticipation of the harvest being harmed. Later they realized that many birds there were an essential part of the pollination process for the plants. The entire ecosystem works in an integrated way where animals play a crucial role in it.
Despite the inescapable position of animals in the ecosystem, the apparent reality shows that animals nowadays do not have their fundamental rights. Every being on the planet playing an important role in human existence must be preserved for our own sake. When they can’t get substantial food and a place to live, it can have some catastrophic consequences for the ecosystem. There are a lot of legal frameworks that have already been established.
The Many Faces of Animal Abuse
The cruelty towards animals can have a variety of ways. The Act enumerates different variants of cruelty to animals under Section 11 as the following actions:
- a) Beating, kicking, overriding, overloading, torturing and causing unnecessary pain to any animal.
- b) Using an old or injured or unfit animal for work (the punishment applies to the owner as well as the user).
- c) Administering an injurious drug/medicine to any animal.
- d) Carrying an animal in any vehicle in a way that causes it pain and discomfort.
- e) Keeping any animal in a cage where it doesn’t have a reasonable opportunity for movement.
- f) Keeping an animal on an unreasonably heavy or short chain for an unreasonable period.
- g) Keeping an animal in total and habitual confinement with no reasonable opportunity to exercise.
- h) Being an owner failing to provide the animal with sufficient food, drink or shelter.
- i) Abandoning an animal without reasonable cause.
- j) Willfully permitting an owned animal to roam on streets or leaving it on the streets to die of disease, old age or disability.
- k) Offering for sale an animal that is suffering pain due to mutilation, starvation, thirst, overcrowding or other ill-treatment.
- l) Mutilating or killing animals through cruel manners such as using strychnine injections.
- m) Using an animal as bait for another animal solely for entertainment.
- n) Organizing, keeping, using or managing any place for animal fighting.
- o) Shooting an animal when it is released from captivity for such purpose.
However, despite of presence of law, the continuous humiliation of animals is quite apparent in Indian society. Digs being the victims of cracker attacks during the festival of Diwali are quite common nowadays. The sound, light, and air pollution for which humans are mostly responsible, are making animals and birds the victims of it. Thus it is high time that we move toward an animal-friendly environment through a variety of ways.
The Plight of Animals: Common Issues
Animals can have a variety of issues that never remain in the limelight. These issues are mainly responsible for the intense plight of animals in this present era. The problems can include:-
Lack of available shelter:
Domestic animals such as dogs, cows and buffaloes can easily be witnessed lying naked on the roads. In an era where Delhi faces 50 degrees of summers and 20 degrees of winters, these extreme temperatures became a sin for shelter-less animals. This is also with cases of stray dogs where they continue to suffer by witnessing the pets enjoying themselves in their drawing rooms. Deforestation also leads to the loss of habitats of a lot of wild animals.
Humiliation
Animals are the most genuine victims of humiliation by humans. Suffering crackers and stones and tolerating harassment are accepted as a common phenomenon for animals. 20,000 deliberate and cruel crimes against animals have occurred in India in the last ten years, according to FIAPO research. This indicates that five stray animals are violently killed per day on average. According to the analysis, the actual number may be at least ten times higher, meaning that 50 animals die every day and that two creatures are killed needlessly in our nation on average every hour.
Pollution and waste
A significant amount of pollution in the nation affects the livelihood of animals phenomenally. Plastics when consumed by cattle can cause cancerous diseases and injuries to the internal organs of the animals. Sound pollution can affect normal mental conditions and create an achy environment for them.
Roadmap Ahead: Securing Animal Protection
- Stringent laws: The government must execute the punishments involved in violation of laws securing animals’ rights in India. Although words are there people find it very easy to exploit any animal there. Thus, we require stringent laws to secure animals from cases of harassment.
- Animal habitats:- We can create special animal habitats specially for street animals. This can help them to deal with extreme climatic conditions.
- adoption promotion:- We can adopt domestic animals such as dogs and cats from the streets. Street dogs are well trained to protect themselves in this region and thus are a viable option to be pets.
- Increasing veterinary hospitals:- There are just 10611 veterinary hospitals which is too low for the treatment of lakhs of animals. Thus we need many more animal hospitals to ensure their better health
Thus, in a nutshell, we shall conclude that a society that advocates ‘ahimsa’ and ‘vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ as its morals, must ensure a dignified position for animals in this society. Once every component of the ecosystem is balanced, then only we can ensure good and healthy human survival.
References
pexels
https://www.animallaw.info/article/overview-animal-laws-india
