Chennai: Consumption of meat of cattle slaughtered in illegal slaughterhouses and even meat shops can trigger health hazards, said Arun Prasanna G, founder of PFCI (People for Cattle in India). He also said several rules are violated when cattle are transported.
He has filed over 40 cases and rescued over 2,000 cattle. Speaking to DC, Arun said cattle can be killed only in a slaughterhouse because there will be a veterinary doctor to pre-examine the cattle.
If he certifies the animal does not have health issues, that it had reached a certain age limit and is not pregnant, the animal can be slaughtered. Arun had spearheaded midgnight cattle rescue operations and inspired Suchitra S. Rao’s crime thriller The Highway Mafia which hit the shelves recently. As described in the book, illegal slaughterhouses transport meat to meat shops by open rickshaws, which make the meat unsafe for consumption. Also certain meat shops do the job (slaughtering) themselves in their dirty backyards.
“The effluents from the illegal slaughterhouses are let out in the open causing red category pollution. Meat shops are not authorized to kill animals either. We filed a case at National Green Tribunal. Out of 1,700 meat shops in Chennai, 1,000 have been shut down. At present, there are only three legal slaughterhouses in Chennai- Villivakkam, Perambur and Saidapet” he said.
The way the cattle are herded together in one lorry is iniquitous, he said. They can be easily booked under IPC Sec. 428 and Sec. 429. Sec. 429 states mischief by killing or maiming cattle, etc., of any value or any animal of the value of fifty rupees.
Whoever commits mischief by killing, poisoning, maiming or rendering useless, any elephant, camel, horse, mule, buffalo, bull, cow or ox, whatever may be the value thereof, or any other animal of the value of fifty rupees or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine, or with both, adds Arun, recalling one horrific incident they witnessed: one of the persons in a truck (either the driver or his assistant) rubbed chillies into the eyes of a cow so it would not sleep.
Cattle are not fed adequately and are made to stand for at least 48 hours. And they are so closely tied that they hardly have any space to move. Sometimes they hit each other, causing injury to one another due to reckless driving.
As for police reluctant to file cases, Arun pointed out, “the laws are amazing but in most of the cases, police are not well aware of these laws.”
“Toll gates are the safest places as the highways are all dark and the trucks do not stop anywhere. One of the major rescue operations we did was on April 21, 2013. We stopped eight trucks in one night and rescued 250 animals,” shared Arun, who was offered a hefty '2.5 crore by the cattle mafia for withdrawing all his cases.
