Telangana govt orders state-wide inspection of all piggery farms to check for cruelty

Hyderabad: Telangana director of animal husbandry has directed all district veterinary and animal husbandry officers/member secretaries of the District Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to instruct field-level officers to keep a check on the usage of gestation and farrowing crates in the piggery farms in Telangana.

This happened after the department received a representation from Mercy For Animals India Foundation, a press note from the organisation said.

The letter directs the District Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of all districts to ensure compliance with Section 11(1)(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which states that any person who “keeps or confines any animal in any cage or receptacle which does not measure sufficiently in height, length and breadth to permit the animal a reasonable opportunity for movement” is punishable by fine or imprisonment.

“Pregnant and nursing pigs confined in gestation and farrowing crates don’t have enough space to even turn around,” said Niharika Kapoor, the organising coordinator at Mercy For Animals India Foundation. “As a result, the pigs suffer bone degeneration and show signs of extreme stress, including biting the metal bars of the crates,” she added.

After appeals from Mercy For Animals India Foundation and other groups, more than 16 states—including Delhi, Bihar, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Manipur, Mizoram, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Sikkim, West Bengal, and Punjab—have already prohibited the use of gestation and farrowing crates, the press note stated.

A right-to-information response furnished by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) National Research Centre on pigs states that gestation and farrowing crates severely restrict movement and hence violate Section 11(1)(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. ICAR referred to a demi-official letter dated January 2014 to all veterinary universities and the National Research Centre on Pigs advising against the use of gestation crates in universities or research facilities. ICAR also cited the Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Punjab, which had issued directives to district officers to ensure that no gestation crates are used in the state.