• An overloaded animal or cart. Check against the maximum load list. Overloading is illegal (Draught and Pack Animals Rules and PCA, Section 11). Offenders are required to unload the cart and/or the animal. The police have the right to confiscate both the cart and the animal.
• Where the route involves going uphill for a distance of more than 1 km, the specified weights shall be halved.
• A weak, limping or injured animal. It is illegal to work a sick or injured animal (PCA, Section 11). In the case of horses, check beneath the saddle area for sores. In the case of bullocks, check the neck area. Because the load falls primarily on the neck, many bullocks develop neck cancer. An injured animal may be confiscated and impounded at the nearest suitable animal infirmary, shelter or municipal pound.
• Frothing at the mouth. It is illegal to work animals when the temperature is above 37 degrees Celsius (Draught and Pack Animals Rules). This means most summer afternoons. These animals must be given water urgently.
• An obviously exhausted animal. Animals may not be worked for more than five hours at a stretch or for more than a total of eight hours a day.
• When not being made to work, animals are required to be unharnessed, fed and watered.
• An emaciated animal. Owners are required to provide sufficient food (PCA, Section 11).
• Whipping, kicking or beating. It is illegal to hit any animal (PCA, Section 11). Many tanga and bullock cart drivers use sticks with nails on the end. They also poke the stick into the animal's rectum to prod him or her to go faster. All of this is illegal and punishable by a fine and up to three months in jail.
• The use of a harness, yoke or bit with spikes, knobs or any sharp projection likely to cause bruises, swellings or pain to the animal. All of this is forbidden.
• Tangas may not carry more than four persons and the driver.
• Camels and horses may not be used on the beach in Mumbai. Camels are desert animals, and sea air damages their lungs (PCA, Section 11).
