Kolkata: STARVING & ABANDONED: Young Horse Mare Rescued from Maidan Died Despite Emergency Treatment, FIR Filed by PETA India.
A first information report (FIR) was registered at the Maidan Police Station against an unknown owner after PETA India rescued a starving and collapsed young mare from the Maidan area near Victoria Memorial. Students from the area contacted PETA India to report a mare with visible ribs, wounds on the body, and unable to stand since a long time from pain. According to the veterinary assessment, the mare’s body condition score was 1, indicating extreme starvation, long‑term neglect, and the absence of food and water, veterinary care, and basic welfare. The mare, despite being only three years old, was suffering from chronic arthritis, deep‑seated hoof injury, infected wounds, and mobility impairment-conditions that made her permanently unfit for work. Even after receiving all the required treatment, nutritious food, and hospice care, she couldn’t withstand the neglect and succumbed.
The FIR was registered under Sections 125, 291, 62, read with 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), for negligent conduct with respect to the animal, which poses a probable danger to human life or any potential threat of grievous harm and for attempting to maim or kill the animal by extreme starvation and long-term neglect which caused wounds and severe arthritis in the horse. 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 a common intention.
PETA India has repeatedly attended to horses used for hauling tourist carriages who collapse on the roads or suffer in extremely poor physical conditions and are abandoned. Horses have been found anaemic, malnourished, overworked, and recumbent from constant use on hard road surfaces in the Victoria Memorial area, where horses are used for riding and horse-drawn carriages for tourists. In 2024-2025, twelve horses were reported dead or severely injured in Kolkata due to similar abuse and neglect, according to data gathered by PETA India and the CAPE Foundation. PETA India has learned that several West Bengal-based companies have officially offered to build e-carriages for use in Kolkata instead of horses.
The Calcutta High Court has taken 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, who cause traffic hazards. 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. In Mumbai, following PETA India’s efforts in the High Court of Bombay, Victorias and horse-drawn carriages for tourists were replaced with heritage-style e-carriages—a move preferred by the former horse owners.
