KOCHI: Even as the debate over banning cow slaughter has resurrected, following the ban imposed recently in Maharashtra with an exceptionally stringent law, there is no respite for the plight of cows, bulls and buffalos in the Gods Own Country where they are butchered in a barbaric and brutal manner (pole-axe method).
The practice, which involves hitting the animal on the forehead with hammer and slitting the throat with machete, is continuing even after animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi directed Chief Minister Oommen Chandy two years ago to stop it.
Though the Chief Minister had assured the former BJP Minister that urgent steps would be taken to check the brutal practice that causes severe pain to the animal while being slaughtered, no concrete measures have been taken by the State Government to end it.
Animal Husbandry Department director Dr Bhrahmanandan said, “we have directed the Local Self Government Department, which is responsible for reining in authorised and unauthorised slaughterhouses in the State, to take measure to stop the practise of killing cattle using violent methods and to introduce the ‘captive-bolt’ pistol method, in which cartridges are fired into the head of the animal to make it unconscious. But, unfortunately it seems they have not implemented the order.”
“There are only less than 100 authorised slaughterhouses, while it is estimated that more than 3,000 unauthorised slaughterhouses are functioning in the State. Together, the abattoirs slaughter around 2.5 crore cattle every year, with most of them using very crude methods,” said Heritage Animal Task Force general secretary V K Venkitachalam, who has submitted a petition to the Animal Husbandry Department seeking to end the illegal slaughtering practices.
“If the ‘captive-bolt’ pistol method is made mandatory, the butchers will not be able to kill cattle using the ‘hammer’ method. Using the hammer method, the butchers can kill hundreds of cattle on a particular night, which is usually done in unhygienic conditions. Besides, the LSG institutions are not interested in reining in the illegal slaughterhouses as there is a big mismatch between demand and supply of meat,” he added.
Entrepreneurship of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University director Dr T P Sethumadhavan said the government should urgently intervene in the issue as the meat processed in unhygienic conditions is said to be one of the primary causes of the rising cases of stomach cancer in the State.