Belagavi: Blood-Drenched Bull, Collapsed and Dragged Pony and Illegal Animal Races—Three Booked for Heartless Acts Following PETA India Complaint

For Immediate Release:

07 July 2026

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Belagavi–Following utterly heartless videos and posters uploaded on social media showing a severely distressed blood-drenched bull tightly tied to a concrete pole with nose-ropes; bulls forced to race while heaving and bloodied; a pony collapsing while hitched to a cart and to another animal; bulls and ponies hitched together; and other animal racing cruelties—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) worked with the Belagavi District Administration and the Belagavi Police to get a First Information Report (FIR) registered against those responsible for organizing, participating in, and inflicting cruelty on the animals by forcing them to race.

The FIR was registered by Sureban police station under Section 325 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, against Ittappa Kadappa, Bhimappa Avappa, Bharamappa Bhimappa and other unknown persons. PETA India now urges the Belagavi Rural Police to seize the four bulls and two ponies and any other animals involved.

Section 325 of the BNS, 2023, makes the maiming or killing of any animal a cognisable offence and provides for a jail term of up to five years, a fine, or both. Section 11 of the PCA Act, 1960, defines “cruelty” and makes the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering upon any animal a punishable offence.

“The lives of bulls and horses are already difficult and forcing them to race just worsens their suffering,” says Sinchana Subramanyan, Senior Coordinator, Cruelty Response Team, PETA India. “We commend the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate (DC & DM), Shri Mohammad Roshan, IAS, for promptly directing the registration of the FIR and sending a clear message that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated. Anyone who finds making animals bleed, heave and fall is a danger to society.”

Bullock-cart and pony-cart races inflict severe physical and psychological suffering on animals. They are routinely beaten, whipped, have their tailbones broken and face weapons like electric-shock devices and spiked sticks—all to force them to run beyond the point of exhaustion. Animals used for such events commonly suffer serious injuries, lung haemorrhaging and even death. Using animals of different species to pull the same cart violates the Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules, 1965, notified under the PCA Act, 1960, as they operate at different speeds and have differing heights and capacities.

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 about PETA India, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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