Animal buffs come up against illegal horse ride

Animal rights campaigners are up in arms against the recent conduct of an unauthorised horse ride in Ernakulam district of Kerala, despite alerts from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).
The illegal horse ride was held at Kakkor area of Ernakulam on February 26, violating various provisions of the Performing Animals Registration Rule 2011, Thrissur-based Animal Heritage Taskforce, an animal rights group, said.
"Though AWBI had issued notices to the District Collector and Muvattuppuzha Revenue Divisional Officer to take urgent measures to stop the event, both of them remained idle without issuing any official magisterial order to stop such cruelty to horses," Taskforce said in a release here today.

This type of 'dereliction of duty' of the Collector and RDO was a violation of Supreme Court order which in clear terms had banned Jallikettu (Taming of bull sport) in June 2014, it said.
Citing the issues, the outfit recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his urgent intervention to take action against those who had violated the AWBI directive, it said.
"The horse ride conducted at Kakkoor was actually a high degree of cruelty to the animal," Taskforce Secretary V K Venkitachalam said.
He also said that the horse had suffered serious injuries and must be provided proper veterinary care without further delay.