Shaktiman death: PETA chief calls for stringent laws against animal assaulters

The police horse breathed his last on Wednesday days after it received a prosthetic limb

Shaktiman, an Uttarakhand Police horse that lost a leg in an attack by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator last month, died on Wednesday, days after it got a prosthetic limb, an official said.

Animal rights activists reacted sharply and asked the government to take action against the accused BJP leader, Ganesh Joshi.

Vets attending the 13-year-old animal said it had not responded to a prosthetic leg brought from the US. The horse died on Wednesday afternoon, they said.

It was at the police lines in Dehradun, where a group of policemen and an international animal rights activist from the US, Jamie Vaughan, were looking after it.

"Shaktiman lost its battle with life after a brave fight of 37 days. I salute its bravery and also Dehradun police,doctors and Jamie who looked after Shakti and wanted it to live," filmmaker Vinod Kapri told IANS. Kapri recently made a documentary on life and the struggle of the horse.

"It's not a death of a horse but a child in home. We treated Shaktiman like our own child," an emotional Kapri said.

PETA India chief executive Poorva Joshipura said that the country should frame more stringent laws against animal assaulters so that peolple like Joshi refrain from being cruel to them. "We urge the government to act fast to ensure other animals are spared from cruelty and horrific deaths by strengthening the penalties for cruelty against animals."

Joshipura said the horse "was essentially killed the day its leg was broken". "Our equine veterinarian always warned his quality of life would be forever damaged and he may not live."

Joshi, the legislator from Mussoorie, attacked and severely injured Shaktiman during a BJP protest against the Harish Rawat government here on March 14.

Badly injured in the attack, Shaktiman's leg had to be amputated later. A few days back, another US resident Tim Mahoney travelled all the way from Kentucky to Dehradun at his own expense to deliver a prosthetic limb for the injured horse.