FIR Registered After Partially Blind Mare Rescued From Maidan, PETA India Says Enough is Enough
This week, a first information report (FIR) was registered at the Maidan Police Station following PETA India rescuing yet another horse from the Maidan with assistance from the Maidan Police. A mare, blind in one eye, whose physical condition indicates prolonged neglect by her former owner was found tied with no access to food or water. Veterinarians opined that she was emaciated and suffering from painful chronic osteoarthritis. Following this, she was transferred to a sanctuary, where she can rest and receive pain relief.
The FIR was registered under Sections 125, 291, 325 read with 62 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) for negligent conduct regarding the animal which poses a probable danger to human life or any potential threat of grievous harm and for causing grievous hurt by maiming the animal. This case also invokes multiple sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, including Section 3, 11(1)(a), 11(1)(f) and 11(1)(h) for neglecting the duty of care, for unreasonably tethering the animal, and for failing to provide adequate food, water, and shelter. Moreover, Section 3(5) of the BNS was invoked for committing crimes in furtherance of common intention.
In recent months, PETA India has filed two First Information Reports (FIRs) – one at Bhowanipur police station and another at Maidan police station – following two disturbing incidents of cruelty to horses. The first, after a disturbing video surfaced on social media showing one of the two horses hitched to a carriage collapsed on the road. The horse was visibly emaciated and likely suffering from heat stroke and dehydration. The second concerned the death of a mare found abandoned in a recumbent state and succumbed to a spinal injury, seemingly from being hit on the back with a blunt object. Additionally, in 2024 alone, at least eight horses were reported dead in Kolkata due to similar abuse and neglect, according to data gathered by PETA India and the CAPE Foundation.
The Calcutta High Court took serious note of incidents in which horses collapsed at the Maidan and elsewhere in Kolkata due to poor health. The court also noted other issues such as the wide-scale prevalence of unlicensed hackney carriages in the city and the high rate of abandonment of ailing and unfit horses by their owners. The court directed the state government to develop a proposal for rehabilitating horse owners and providing them with an alternative livelihood to hauling tourists in carriages so that “dispensing with the horse-drawn carriages as done in Mumbai can be considered and examined for its feasibility.”
