Ajit Karn
PETA India has sent letters to the presidents of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress urging them to include animal welfare in their respective parties’ 2024 election manifestos by updating policies and legislation to provide stronger protections for animals and harsher punishments for those who commit acts of cruelty. Currently, a person convicted of animal cruelty under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, can get away with a fine of Rs 10. The parties have been urged to support severe fines, jail time, and a prohibition on owning or working with animals for those convicted of animal cruelty.
Other suggestions made by PETA India to include animal welfare measures in the party platforms are as follows:
- Prioritising funding for the development of sophisticated, non-animal research and testing methods and committing to a strategy to phase out the use of animals in science
- Prohibiting the use of elephants in performances
- Ending the use of animals forced to perform in circuses
- Focusing on the production of vegan food and leather in India
- Prohibiting the caging of aerial birds
- Prohibiting the sale of animals through pet shops and breeders while promoting the adoption of dogs and cats from overburdened animal shelters
- Developing action plans to reduce the consumption of animal-derived foods so as to protect animals, human health, and the environment
- Mandating humane education in schools
Animals are not ours to abuse in any way.
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