BENGALURU: In the middle of halal controversy in Karnataka, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services has issued a letter to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) asking the civic body to direct and ensure that all chicken shops and abattoirs in the city slaughter the animals only after stunning them.
According to the department's deputy director, the letter comes after several complaints alleging that rules are not being followed at slaughterhouses. Stunning is an act of knocking out the senses of an animal prior to slaughter. The notice came in the wake of Hindu organisations appealing for a ban on halal meat as well as Varsha Todaku celebrated on Sunday.
The department has asked BBMP to report to the Bengaluru Urban chapter of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty on Animals on the progress made in ensuring that the slaughterhouses are following the guidelines.
In the letter, dated April 1, the department cited the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001. The Act stipulates that a separate area for stunning the animals prior to slaughter is necessary and also that the the area where it takes place be suitable for the animal as well as for the practice of religious slaughter.
Many groups had sought ban
Further, Chapter 6 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Rules, 1960, prohibits killing of an animal required as per religious practice to be rendered as an offence. Several religious groups had sought a ban on halal meat as well as a its mass boycott, with BJP National Secretary CT Ravi terming the practice as ‘economic jihad’.