HYDERABAD: Anjani Kumar, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, tweeted about taking care of abandoned animals and cruelty towards them, throwing light on several incidents of man-animal conflict leading to animal cruelty. He said, “Abandoning a pet dog on the street to fend for itself is a most inhuman act. Can you do that to your own child? Such animal get dependent emotionally and physically on the family. For God’s sake never abandon them. It also amounts to cruelty to animal and is punishable under law.” City animal rescuers speak about the need for better laws and a welcoming attitude towards animals.
G Vaidehi Acharya, an animal welfare activist who volunteers with the People For Animal organisation said, “There is no awareness regarding animals and their rights. Even when we animal activists catch hold of culprits and drag them to court, they simply get away with a fine of mere Rs 50.” The law about animals must be strengthened, however, there are different laws for endangered animals unlike the others, she added. Vaidehi who is also an accounting processor at Qualcomm mentioned that there needs to be proper education regarding the treatm e n t o f animals and their rights in the school curriculum. “We need to sensitise the topic to create awareness. Sometimes the reason for such a behaviour can be because we are taught to pet one animal and eat another,” she said. There are a lot of ways through which human can show kindness and compassion towards animals.
One of the most important acts now is feeding the strays or placing water bowls for birds, Vaidehi added. Vaidehi mentioned, “There are rescue operations that exist and people can contact them. Interested individuals can volunteer as well to help save animals.” Varun Chhabria, a businessman and also an individual animal rescuer said, “Of late the number of cases relating to animal cruelty has been drastically increasi n g . Th e r e haven’t been any major changes made to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) 1960 Act which explains how much of importance the government gives animals.” Throwing light to the recent incident where a pregnant elephant had a tragic death, Varun added, “I believe that no animal deserves such a painful death and also that people need to understand animals are an equal part of the society.” He said, “People need to understand the importance of the animals in our ecosystem and also need to approach any NGOs or an animal rescue organisation to help them relocate animals to safer places.”
Sanjana Raheja, another individual animal rescuer and an IT employee said, “I feel the problem begins when people start to think that the animals are not a part of our nature. They need to understand that these voiceless souls are very well a part of our society and should bet r e a t e d a s e q u a l l y important.” “When every person of the community, accepts them to be a part of their surroundings, thinks of it as their duty to take care of them, in whatsoever possible manner, treats them with generosity and love and when every kid learns to befriend these voiceless souls in their early age, then we would be building a community that needs no harsh government rules to end animal cruelty,” said Sanjana.
She mentioned, “You won’t need to adopt, you won’t even need to punish, you will just need to treat them with generosity and love, that’s the only language they understand. You accept them, they accept you – it is as simple as that.” They are just equivalent to all our other human relations and accepting this would take us all a long way in this fight, Sanjana added.