Five like-minded friends have joined hands to form Coimbatore Cattle Care Welfare Trust to prevent trafficking of cattle to Kerala through Coimbatore.
“We stopped consumption of beef after we came to know the cruelty that buffaloes and cows suffered while they were transported from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to Kerala,” President of the association S. Nizamudeen told The Hindu .
He added that more than 50 animals were forcibly loaded into the trucks and transported with little space to move around, without food and water on journeys which lasted up to three days.
He said out that Sections 47 to 58 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act (1960) has standard procedures to be followed to transport cows, bullocks and oxen.
One of the most important rules is that only six to nine animals should be transported in a truck.
An authorised veterinarian should certify the condition of the animals.
The name and address of the person from whom it was purchased should also be produced on demand.
The transporting vehicle should have cattle caretakers and a slaughter-eligibility certificate should be obtained if the animals were transported for slaughter. But none of these norms were followed by the transporters now.
On Sunday, the second day after the association was formed, more than 175 volunteers enrolled to support the organisation’s cause.
Mr. Nizamudeen said that they had plans to depute volunteers to each check post in the Coimbatore region to check for illegal transportation of cattle.
The organisation has also planned to conduct a series of awareness campaigns in villages and cities.
The campaigns in cities would focus on the norms for transport of cattle and the punishment the illegal transportation would attract.
This is because the animals are mostly transported from villages.
The campaign in urban areas would highlight the cruelty that the animals undergo before they were slaughtered.
The trust has also urged the government to form a dedicated police wing to end illegal transportation of cattle. “This wing should be similar to the Prohibition Enforcement Wing (PEW) that prevents brewing, smuggling and sale of spurious liquor and the Civil Supplies CID that prevent smuggling of ration rice,” Mr. Nizamudeen added.
