KATHMANDU, Feb 24: Animal welfare activists have emphasized the need for the timely introduction followed by strict implementation of the Animal Welfare Act to address the problems of cruel treatment of animals.
At an interaction program held at the capital on Saturday, pioneer animal rights activist Sneha Shrestha, highlighted the comparative development of animal welfare laws and related governmental bodies to safeguard the rights of animals in India to emphasize the urgent need of similar laws and governmental bodies in Nepal too.
“Our southern neighbor India introduced the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960 and Animal Welfare Board in 1962,” Shrestha said, “We need to learn a lesson from them and introduce similar laws and corresponding bodies in Nepal.”
Animal rights activists stress need for Animal Welfare Act
When asked about the ineffective implementation of the law in India, Shrestha asserted that the introduction of such laws in itself sets a fear factor amongst the people who act cruelly towards animals.
“The introduction of the law in itself would help curb such inhumane practices by scaring people with punishments,” she said, “We are working on introducing the Animal Welfare Act at the moment. When it is introduced, we will advocate for its strict implementation.”
Due to the absence of stringent laws specifically to punish the people who are cruel towards animals, culprits get away easily by paying meager fines set by clauses of other related laws.
Speaking to a group of journalists, activists from Sneha’s Care, an NGO headed by Shrestha, highlighted that transport companies, for example, get away with their brutal practices during long-distance animal transport of animals such as buffaloes by paying the meager fine of Rs 5,000 which is less than 1 percent of the total revenue generated from one transport.
“In addition to larger sums as fines, the people who continue to display atrocities against animals need to be punished with jail terms,” Shrestha said, “When the new Animal Welfare Act makes such provisions, the offenders would take their cruel practices more seriously and would hopefully work to avoid such practices.”
At the program, the activists stated that the laws on animal welfare will also pave the way for addressing animal rights in Nepal in the future.
“Currently, we are working to introduce the concept of animal welfare under the ‘One Health’ guideline,” one activist said, “The concept of animal welfare automatically advances us closer to the concept of animal rights.”
The activists also highlighted that the Animal Welfare Bill 2081 BS has been stalled at the Ministry of Law for more than two months and that NGOs such as Sneha’s Care are actively working to pressurize the bureaucratic mechanism to move forward with the process to pass the bill.
