Three Bulls Used for Racing Die with Severe Injuries—PETA India Demands Detailed Police Probe, FIR Registered

For Immediate Release:

06 December 2024

Contact:

Navi Mumbai – Following a report in the Times of India about three bulls admitted in severe condition—each with broken front legs— in Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals in Mumbai, allegedly due to bull racing events or practice for them, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India collaborated with the Navi Mumbai police to file a first information report (FIR). Unfortunately, all three bulls have succumbed to their injuries. The postmortem examination of the last bull to die was conducted the day after the FIR was registered.

The FIR was registered on Saturday by Taloja Police Station against unidentified person(s) for the killing of a bull that hailed from Taloja village. The FIR was registered under Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which criminalises killing, maiming, poisoning or rendering any animal useless. PETA India urges the police to ensure a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the ultimate deaths of all three bulls.

“Bull cart races inflict significant suffering on animals. Participants often force animals to run by striking them and using weapons, causing physical injuries and psychological trauma. These animals already face significant hardships when made to work, and forcing them to endure being beaten and to run beyond the point of exhaustion or to death is unacceptable,” says PETA India Cruelty Response Coordinator Virendra Singh. “We commend Shri Sanjay Yenpure, IPS, Joint Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai, for directing registration of the FIR and sending a clear message that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated.”

In its complaint letter, PETA India highlighted that bull cart races in Maharashtra can only be conducted in compliance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, as amended by the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2017. Section 3(2) of the amended PCA Act, 1960, mandates that no pain or suffering is caused to the animal by any person or the person in charge of the bull. As per Section 3(3) of the amended PCA Act, 1960, violation of the duty of care under Section 3(2) is an offence punishable with a fine which may extend up to rupees five lakhs or imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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