Cruelty to animals may attract fine and imprisonment | Fusion - WeRIndia

Good news to animal lovers as the government is mulling to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

To prevent animal abuse, the government proposed amendments in the 60-years-old Act.

As per the proposed amendments, those who show cruelty to animals leading to the death of those animals will have to pay a penalty of ₹75,000 or three times the cost of the animal. It may also attract imprisonment of up to five years.

The government proposed three categories of offences. These include minor injury and major injury. Major injury has two categories either leading to permanent disability or death of an animal.

Based on the category of cruelty, the penalty amount has to be paid ranging between ₹750 and ₹75,000. Besides, there is a jail term up to five years as per the crime category.

Currently, the violation of rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act is a non-cognizable offence. As per these rules, those who violate or help in violation of rules shall be punishable with fine up to ₹100 or imprisonment of three months or both.

But, the government wants to amend the rules to make the rules more stringent and punish animal abusers.

There were many instances where animals were cruelly harassed. In recent days, many such incidents are shared on social media. One such incident happened in Kerala. Some people had given a fruit-filled with firecrackers to an elephant. It irked several people in the country including animal lovers.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya member quoted this incident in the Parliament and raised a question on the amendment of existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

The government while responding to that and other such questions said that there are proposals to amend the Act by introducing more penalties and imprisonment. It also said there were many pending cases in the courts related to cruelty towards animals.

Image by Kirsi Kataniemi from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/photos/elephant-animal-zoo-111695/