FIR Registered After Chicks Kicked onto Railway Tracks and Left to Die Following PETA India Complaint in Guwahati, Assam.
After receiving a video that went viral showing chicks lying on the floor of a train while a man kicks them onto railway tracks and leaving them to die, PETA India worked with local animal activist Aditi Bakshi to promptly pursue police action. Acting on the complaint, the Guwahati Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Sections 11(1)(a), 11(1)(d), 11(1)(e), 11(1)(k), and 38(3) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The chicks (baby chickens) are thought to originate from the egg or meat industry.
The disturbing video shows numerous chicks scattered across the train floor, some alive, others barely responsive, and several apparently suffering from serious injuries or broken bones. The chicks appear to have endured a rough and stressful journey, apparently without proper enclosures to ensure their safe transport. The footage further shows the man using his feet to kick the chicks onto the railway tracks to be left for dead, subjecting these animals to severe and unnecessary torture, pain and suffering.
Chicks feel pain, stress and fear, and kicking, injuring, and throwing these fragile birds onto railway tracks is outrageous cruelty. PETA India commends the Senior Superintendent of Railway Police (SRP), Pandu, Guwahati, Shri Pranjit Borah, for directing the immediate registration of an FIR and sending a clear message that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated.
The incident also highlights the routine and unacceptable suffering faced by chicks in the egg and meat industries, where newborn birds deemed unwanted—including male chicks in the egg industry since they cannot lay eggs—are killed or discarded shortly after hatching. Unwanted chicks are often crushed, suffocated, drowned, or sent through grinders along with dead birds and eggshells. In many instances, newborn chicks are also sold as feed for fish farms to be ground up or directly eaten alive by fish. Some chicks are coloured and sold as toys to children, only to often die from toxins or mishandling shortly after.
