Cruelty to birds

a hundred years ago may 5, 1917

At the Bombay High Court Mr. Justice Bachelor recently decided a case under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (Act XI of 1890) in which the learned judge had to acquit the accused person on the ground that the provisions of Section 3(b) of the Act were not wide enough to cover the specific act of cruelty for which the accused had been prosecuted. According to the facts found by the learned judge, the applicant purchased certain storks or saras and was conveying them by train from Indore to Kolhapur. They were young birds and prior to applicant’s purchasing them their eyes had been sealed or stitched up in accordance with the practice which appears to be prevailing in India as it certainly prevails or used to prevail in England. At the Poona station it was noticed that the birds’ eyes were thus stitched up and were bleeding. This led to a complaint and conviction of the accused by the magistrate on the ground that the practice was a cruel one. The learned judge who heard the appeal had to consider whether this particular form of cruelty was provided by the Section under which the prosecution was launched. The Section makes punishable only the causing of needless pain or suffering to an animal by any person who in any place to which the public have any access binds or carries any animal “in such manner or position” as to cause such pain or suffering. The species of cruelty inflicted must, therefore, be such as to cause unnecessary pain or suffering arising from the manner or position in which the animal is carried. The conviction of the accused was, therefore, set aside not because the particular act complained did not amount to cruelty, but because the Act did not provide for a cruelty unless and until it arose from the manner and position of carrying. The law being defective and inadequate requires revision. We are glad Mr. Labhshankar Laxmidas, the well known philanthropist, has moved His Excellency the Viceroy to amend the Act, and we trust the matter will receive favourable consideration from the Government of India.