KOCHI: Even when the appetite of Keralites for beef has reached an all-time high, there is no end to the woes of cows, bulls and buffaloes in God’s Own Country, where a majority of these animals are slaughtered in a barbaric and brutal manner (pole-axe method) even after a directive from the Centre to stop the practice.
According to statistics available with the Animal Husbandry Department, in the last fiscal, the state has consumed a record 2.5 lakh metric tonnes of beef, of which 1.4 lakh metric tonnes was cattle meat and the remaining that of buffalo.
Speaking to Express, animal rights activist V K Venkitachalam, who recently submitted a petition to the Animal Husbandry Department seeking action to end the practice of killing the poor animals by hammering on their forehead and slitting their throat, said that the Animal Husbandry Department and Local Self-government Department are still dragging their feet on implementing the promise of the Chief Minister to stop the crude method, which causes considerable pain to the animals during slaughter.
Earlier, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had assured animal rights activist and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who had directed him two years ago to stop the practice after watching a video clipping of the killing of cattle in Kerala, that he would take all possible steps to end the practice and introduce modern techniques such as captive-bolt pistol method for slaughter. However, the unauthorised slaughterhouses in the state are still killing cattle by hammering on their forehead and slitting the throat of animals using machetes, said Venkitachalam.
Speaking to ‘Express,’ Dr Chandrankutty, Director of Animal Husbandry Department, said there has been considerable improvement in this sector recently after the introduction of modern slaughterhouses.
However, a lot has to be done to completely switch over to 100-per cent scientific slaughter, he said, adding that it was the LSG Department which is responsible for curbing the functioning of the unauthorised slaughterhouses as well as regulating the authorised abattoirs in the state, apart from ensuring hygienic surroundings.
However, according to butchers, if the captive-bolt pistol method - in which a cartridge of six inches is fired into the head of the cattle in order to make it unconscious by puncturing its sensory nerves in the brain - is exclusively resorted to in the state, the meat traders will not be able to get enough quantity of meat in time to meet the burgeoning demand of the beef buffs as the new method has certain limitations in massacring the cattle in a short span of time.
By hammering, the butchers can kill hundreds of cattle on a given night in an unhygienic condition, throwing the mandatory guidelines for slaughtering to the winds.