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Animal Cruelty to be 120 Times More Expensive in India - Reports

The Indian Government is cosnidering a proposal to enhance the penalty structure under the Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 in a bid to revamp the animal welfare laws.
Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik) — According to media reports the Indian Government may direct its environment ministry, a ministry currently overlooking animal welfare and prevention of cruelty to animals, to prepare a draft amendment to the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act with a provision to increase the current penalty set at mere Rs 50 (less than a dollar) to inflation-adjusted amounts up to Rs 6,000 ($84).

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The increase in penalty amount will act as a strong deterrent and will give strong teeth to the law, said the report.

Female Dog, Mother of 5 Pups Raped and Killed by 2 Men in Indian Town
There have been several proddings by Supreme Court judgments, strong activism by animal rights activists and time-to-time outrage expressed by several parliamentarians, which has prompted the Modi Government to begin thinking on the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act revamp.

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Interestingly, some parliamentarians had gotten together and started a campaign in 2016 named as ‘No more 50' — an allusion to the paltry penalty of Rs 50 provided for in the Act.

According to the current provisions, the Section 11 of the Act states that a penalty of up to Rs 50 is to be levied against any person or group of persons engaging in any act of cruelty to animals. The definition of cruelty includes animal beating, torturing, mutilating, kicking or starving. Activists believe that the up to Rs 6000 penalty in the offing will serve as a credible deterrent against acts of cruelty meted to animals by humans.

 

 

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