Snehal Upadhyay-
Kerala High Court has issued additional guidelines and suggestive measures to improve the condition of animal welfare in the State.
The Division Bench comprising of Justice AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice P Gopinath impleaded few animal welfare organizations such as DAYA and Angels Nair, General Secretary for Animal Legal Force Integration as an additional respondent in the matter.
Firstly, The Court has asked everyone who has a pet to get their animal registered within six months. In addition to this, the Court also set three months for registration for getting ownership of any animal.
The Court said that this registration process would help in a multitude of ways “A lot of animals are found abandoned across the State. These animals can be taken into a shelter, but their owner has to be traced and discouraged from keeping any more pets. This could apply to people who hurt or maim animals as well. Registration made this process easier.”
Secondly, the Court issued directions to control Animal Birth, the Court expressly said that the organizations are not competent enough yet, to deal with this matter. Hence, the respondents were directed to submit an inventory report details of all facilities operated by the State for animal birth control.
Also Read: What are the Rights of the Animals?
Thirdly, the Court has ordered to remove all the posters which depict pets to be caged or be chained.
Lastly, the High Court noted about the action of the police officers when any complaint about animal rights is brought in front of them, Advocate M. Uma Devi, representing DAYA alleges that they do not get enough corporation from the police and which brought up difficulties in getting a complaint registered.
The Court ordered the Director-General of Prosecution to give general directions to the police department and the State stating that, for every incident reported, an FIR should be filed and accordingly, appropriate action must be taken by the concerned authorities.
The matter to be heard on Monday for further directions.
