Cruelty to Animals in Pakistan

Cruelty to Animals in Pakistan

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The Pakistan Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890

THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ACT, 1890

As compared to other faiths, Islam does not believe in dogma. It is simple and rational. It is easy and flexible. Islam has not set strict parameters of a political system or a state model. In fact, consultation is a core Islamic value and Muslims are asked to find solutions that suit times in which they live. Also Islam protects privacy of individuals. It is a faith where every individual is directly accountable to God. Islam is about personal relationship between God and a human being. Search for knowledge is very noble in Islam. But unfortunately, in Pakistan, illiterate mullahs have been promoting dogmas in the name of Islam. Any suggestion or rational solution would be considered contempt and an attack on Islam in a society where winds of intolerance have blown away reason and logic.

In all the times it is witnessed  that animal slaughter in Pakistan always seems that the person carrying out the slaughter or paying for the slaughter does so according to their own favorite styles, not the way Islam requires.

During Eid Ul-Adha in Pakistan my family members did not slaughter animals for the occasion.
This raised many eyebrows amongst friends, relatives, acquaintances etc.

An example of confusion and cruelty by Pakistanis is slaughter millions of animals on the occasion of Eid al-Adha. Many borrow money to buy an animal to perform the rituals. Others spend hundreds of thousands of rupees to show off their wealth. Every Year in the entire country cruelty to animals displayed publicly. The rich and the poor, the young and the old, educated and illiterate, everybody will be excited by the game of blood in the name of God.

Pakistanis are expected to spend more than 300 million dollars on animals that will be killed in just three days. Such a huge sum could be used for humane purpose in a country that is suffering from chronic economic crisis and has been hit by the worst floods in the history.

Instead of spending the sum on sacrificing animals, the money could be invested in long-term development projects every year but most people in Pakistan look at government, God and mullahs for solutions.

Slaughter of cow calves is common in some parts of Pakistan but the society is shockingly insensitive to such cruelty. It seems insane to raise the issue of animal cruelty in a country where violent human deaths are taken casually; however, a recent report from Peshawar has compelled me to write about the growing greed, dishonesty and cruelty in the Pakistani society.

A local daily has reported that hundreds of baby cows and buffalos are killed in Peshawar’s illegal slaughter houses, some calves are only one or two days old. The meat is supplied to posh restaurants in the city where it is sold as lamb. The business is booming due to high demand.

Recently, Peshawar Police raided a slaughter house where they found dozens of cow calves being killed. Reportedly the legs of one calf were cut while it was still alive; the purpose was to sell the calf as a tender piece of lamb meat.

Politicians, businessmen, civil servants, journalists and intellectuals eat at restaurants that sell such meat. While eating tons of young flesh, members of the intelligentsia discuss world problems and talk about rights and responsibilities.

Milkmen around the city of Peshawar sell newly born calves because according to their calculations, every day a baby cow drinks milk worth 100 to 200 Pakistani rupees. Greedy milkmen deprive calves of their mothers’ love and sell them to butchers for rupees 1,500 to 2,000 each. Then cows and buffalos are injected with special chemicals due to which the animals start giving milk.

Interestingly, butchers, milkmen, restaurant owners and meat eaters are all faithful Muslims. Most of them offer five-time prayers, fast during the month of Ramadan and perform the pilgrimage of hajj.

At many slaughter houses it seems that people actually enjoy torturing the animals. They slowly cut off the wings of hens and their legs. Even when taking out the animals from the cage to weigh it they tug the hens by their wings instead of gently carrying it in their hands.

This is extremely painful for the birds who's wings are sensitive to taking the whole weight of their body when tugged so hard. At many times the people who are carrying out the slaughter cut up the hens as if they are cutting wood, ignoring the hen's cries of pain.

Anti-India and anti-Hindu Pakistani society adhere to a very conservative interpretation of Islam but in many ways Pakistanis are, culturally, close to Hindus. One sign of this cultural association is Pakistanis’ preference of mutton over beef. In Pakistan, lamb meat is more expensive than beef.

Cruelty to animals is so common in Pakistan that no one notices it. Actually, it can be a symptom of deeper behavioral issues.
In fact, Pakistan is a confused society where faith, business and politics are mixed up and messed up. Most religious rituals and symbols are based on distorted and inaccurate accounts of history.

Forced imposition of borrowed religious and cultural identities has damaged the social fiber of the Pakistani society. The ruling elites of Pakistan are afraid of open and honest dialogue. Mullahs have the monopoly over religious interpretations and they use religion to suppress truth. The public does not like uncertainty and religion gives definite and final answers. Mullahs of different brands and sects tell the public everything but the truth. This has created confusion and

The Pakistan Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890

THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ACT, 1890

ACT No. XI of 1890 (21st March 1890)
(As modified up to the 15th December, 1937)

AN ACT for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Title, extent and commencement, and super-session of other enactments

1. (1) This act may be called the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1890.
(2) This section extends to the whole of British India; and the ²(Provincial Government) may, by notification in the official Gazette, extend, on and from a date to be specified in the notification, the whole or any part of the rest of this Act to any such local area as it thinks fit.
(3) When any part of this Act has been extended under sub-section (2) to a local area, the²(Provincial Government) may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that the whole or any part of any other enactment in force in the local area for the prevention of cruelty to animals shall, except as regards anything done or any offence committed or any fine or penalty incurred or any proceedings commenced, cease to have effect in the local area, and such whole or part shall cease to have effect accordingly until the ²(Provincial Government), by a like notification, otherwise directs.
(4) The  (Provincial Government) may cancel or vary a notification under sub-section (2) or sub-section (3).

2. In this act, unless there is something repugnant in the subject or context -
(1) “animal” means any domestic or captured animal.
(2) “street” includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley, passage or open space, whether a thoroughfare or not, to which the public has access.

Amendment of section 2, Act XI of 1890

(3) Phooka or doom dev includes any process of introducing air or any substances into the female organ of a milch animal with the object of drawing off from the animal any secretion or milk.

Substitution of new section for section 3, Act XI of 1890

3. If any person –
a) overdrives, beats, or otherwise treats any animal so as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering, or
b) blinds, keeps, carries or consigns for carriage any animal in such manner or position as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering, or
c) offers for sale or without reasonable cause has in his possession any live animal which is suffering pain by reason of mutilation, starvation, thirst, over-crowding or other ill-treatment, or
d) offers for sale any dead animal which he has reason to believe has been killed in an unnecessarily cruel manner, or
e) without reasonable cause abandons any animal in circumstances which render it likely that it will suffer pain by reason of starvation or thirst,

he shall be punished, in the case of a first offence, with fine which may extend to fifty rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month and, in the case of second or subsequent offence committed within three years of the previous offence, with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with both.

Insertion of new section 3-A in Act XI of 1890

3-A. (1) If any person overloads any animal, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month.

(2) If the owner of any animal, or any person who, either as a trader, carrier or contractor or by virtue of his employment by a trader, carrier, or contractor, is in possession of, or in control of the loading of such animal, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

Substitution of new section 4, Act XI of 1890

4. (1) If any person performs upon any cow or other milch animal the operation called phooka or doom dev, or permits such operation to be performed upon any such animal in his possession or under his control, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with both, and the animal on which the operation was performed shall be forfeited to Government.

Penalty for practicing Phooka

Provided that in case of a second or subsequent conviction of a person under this section he shall be punished with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees and with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years.

(2) A Court may order payment out of any fine imposed under this section of an amount not exceeding one-tenth of the fine to any person other than a police officer or officer of a society or institution concerned with the prevention of cruelty to animals, who has given information leading to the conviction.

Penalty for killing animals with unnecessary cruelty anywhere.

5. If any person kills any animal in an unnecessarily cruel manner, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with both.

Penalty for being in possession of the skin of goat killed with unnecessary cruelty.

¹(5-A. If any person has in his possession the skin of a goat and has reason to believe that the goat has been killed in an unnecessarily cruel manner, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees, or with imprisonment which may extend to three months, or with both, and the skin shall be confiscated.)

Presumptions as to possession of skin of goat

¹(5-B. If any person is charged with the offence of killing goat contrary to the provisions of section 5, or with a offence punishable under section 5-A, and it is proved that such person had in his possession, at the time the offence as alleged to have been committed, the skin of a goat with any part of the skin or the head attached thereto, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proven, that such goat was killed in an unnecessarily cruel manner, and that the person in possession of such skin had reason so to believe).

Penalty for employing anywhere animals unfit for labour

6. If any person employs in any work or labour any animal which by reason of any disease, infirmity, wound, sore or other cause is unfit to be so employed, or permits any such animal in his possession or under his control to be so employed, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

Insertion of new sections 6A, 6B and 6C in Act XI of 1890

6-A. For the purposes of section 3-A and 6, an owner or other person in possession or control of an animal shall be deemed to have permitted an offence if he has failed to exercise reasonable care and supervision with a view to the prevention of such offence, and, for the purposes of section 4, if he fails to prove that he has exercised such care and supervision.

Interpretation

6-B. (1) The Provincial Government may, by general or special order, appoint infirmaries for the treatment and care of animals in respect of which offences against this act have been committed, and may authorize the detention therein of any animal pending its production before a Magistrate.

Treatment and care of animals

(2) The Magistrate before whom a prosecution for an offence against this Act has been instituted may direct that the animal concerned shall be treated and cared for in an infirmary, until it is fit to perform its usual work or is otherwise fit for discharge, or that it shall be sent to a pinjrapole, or, if the Veterinary Officer incharge of the area in which the animal is found or other such Veterinary Officer as may be authorized in this behalf by rules made under section 15 certifies that it is incurable or cannot be removed without cruelty that it shall be destroyed.

(3) An animal sent for care and treatment to an infirmary shall not, unless the magistrate directs that it shall be send to a pinjrapole or that it shall be destroyed, be released from such place except upon a certificate of its fitness for discharge issued by the Veterinary Officer in charge of the area in which the infirmary is situated or such other Veterinary Officer as may be authorized in this behalf by rules made under section 15.

(4) The cost of transporting an animal to an infirmary or pinjrapole, and of its maintenance and treatment in an infirmary, shall be payable by the owner of the animal in accordance with a scale of rates to be prescribed by the District Magistrate or, in Presidency-towns, by the Commissioner of Police:

Provided that when the Magistrate so orders, on account of the poverty of the owner of the animal, no charge shall be payable for the treatment of the animal.

(5) If the owner refuses or neglects to pay such cost or to remove the animal within such time as a Magistrate may prescribe, the Magistrate may direct that the animal be sold and that the proceeds of the sale be applied to the payment of such cost.

(6) The surplus, if any, of the proceeds of such sale shall, on application made by the owner within two months from the date of the sale, be paid to him.

Penalty for baiting or inciting animals to fight

6-C. If any person -

a) incites any animal to fight, or
b) baits any animal, or
c) aids or abets any such incitement or baiting, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees.

Exception – it shall not be an offence under this section to incite animals to fight if such fighting is not likely to cause injury or suffering to such animals and all reasonable precautions are taken to prevent injury or suffering from being so caused.

Penalty for permitting diseased animals to go at large or to die in public places

7. If any person willfully permits any animal of which he is the owner or is in charge to go at large in any street while the animal is affected with contagious or infectious disease or without reasonable excuse permits any diseased or disabled animal of which he is the owner or is in charge to die in any street, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees where he is the owner of the animal, or to fifty rupees where he is in charge of but not the owner of the animal.

Special power of search and seizure in respect certain offence

17-A. [(1) If a police officer, not below the rank of sub-inspector, has reason to believe that an offence under section 5, in respect of a goat, is being or is about to be, or has been, committed in any place, or that any person has in his possession the skin of a goat with any part of the skin or the head attached thereto, he may enter and search such place or any place in which he has reason to believe any such skin to be, and may seize any such skin and any article or thing used or intended to be used in the commission of such offence].
(2) If a police officer, not below the rank of sub-inspector, or any person specially authorized by the Provincial Government in this behalf has reason to believe that phooka or doom dev has just been or is being performed on any animal within the limits of his jurisdiction, he may enter any place in which he has reason to believe such animal to be and may seize the animal and produce it for examination by the Veterinary Officer in charge of the area in which the animal is seized.

Search Warrants

8. (1) If a Magistrate of the first class or second class Presidency Magistrate, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Commissioner of Police or District Superintendent of Police, upon information in writing and after such inquiry as he thinks necessary, has reason to believe that an offence against this Act is being or is about to be or has been committed in any place, he may either himself enter and search or by his warrant authorize any police officer not below the rank of sub-inspector to enter and search the place.

X of 1882

(2) The provisions of the ²Code of Criminal Procedure, 1882, relating to searches under that Code shall, so far as those provisions can be made applicable, apply to a search under sub-section 3[(1) (or under section 7-A (1)].

Limitations for prosecutions

9. A prosecution for an offence against this Act shall not be instituted after the expiration of three months from the date of the commission of the offence.

Destruction of suffering animals

10. (1) When any Magistrate, Commissioner of Police or District Superintendent of Police has reason to believe that an offence against this Act has been committed in respect of any animal, he may direct the immediate destruction of the animal if in his opinion its sufferings are such as to render such a direction proper.

(2) Any police officer above the rank of constable who finds any animal so diseased, or so severely injured, or in such a physical condition that it cannot, in his opinion, be removed without cruelty, may, if the owner is absent or refuses to consent to the destruction of the animal, forthwith summon the Veterinary Officer in charge of the area in which the animal is found and, if the Veterinary Officer certifies that the animal is mortally injured, or so severely injured or in such a physical condition that its destruction is desirable, the police officer may, after obtaining orders from a Magistrate, destroy the animal or cause it to be destroyed.

Saving with respect to religious rites and usages

11. Nothing in this Act shall render it an offence to kill any animal in a manner required by the religion or religious rites and usages of any race, sect, tribe or class.

Provision supplementary to section I with respect to extent of Act

12. Notwithstanding anything in section 1, sections 4 and 13, sections 9 and 10, and sections 6A, 7A, 8 and 15 so far as they relate to offences under section 4 shall extend to every local area in which any section of this Act constituting an offence is for the time being in force.

Offence under section 4 to be cognizable

13. Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1890, an offence punishable under section 4 shall be cognizable offence within the meaning of that Code.

General power of seizure for examination

14. Any police officer above the rank of a constable or any person authorized by the Provincial Government in this behalf, who has reason to believe that an offence against this Act has been or is being committed in respect of any animal, may, if in his opinion the circumstances so require, seize the animal and produce the same for examination by the nearest Magistrate or by such Veterinary Officer as may be designated in this behalf by rules made under section 15; and such police officer or authorized person may, when seizing the animal, require the person in charge thereof to accompany it to the place of examination.

Power to make rules

15. (1) The Provincial Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, and subject to the condition of previous publication, make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, the Provincial Government may make rules -

a) Prescribing the maximum weight of loads to be carried or drawn by any animals;
b) Prescribing conditions to prevent the overcrowding of animals;
c) Prescribing the period during which, and the hours between which buffaloes shall not be used for draught purposes;
d) Prescribing the purposes to which fines realized under this Act may be applied, including such purposes as the maintenance of infirmaries, pinjrapoles, and Veterinary Hospitals;
e) Prohibiting the use of any bit or harness involving cruelty;
f) Requiring persons carrying on the business of a farrier to be licensed and registered;
g) Requiring persons owning, or in charge of, premises in which animals are kept or milked to register such premises, to comply with prescribed conditions as to the boundary walls or surrounding such premises, to permit their inspection for the purposes of ascertaining whether any offence against section 4 is being or has been committed therein, and to expose in such premises copies of section 4 of this Act in a language or languages commonly understood in the locality; and
h) Prescribing the manner in which cattle may be impounded in any place appointed for the purpose, so as to secure the provision of adequate space, food and water.

(3) If any person contravenes, or abets the contravention of, any rule made under this section, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees.

Persons authorized under section 14 to be public servants. XLV of 1860

16. Every person authorized by the Provincial Government under section 14 shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.

Indemnity. XLV of 1860

17. No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against any person who is, or who is deemed to be, a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code in respect of anything in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act.