New Delhi: The central government has withdrawn the draft livestock bill after animal lovers and activists raised their concern saying that it will result in cruelty and spoil the gene pool.
In an order Tuesday, the department of animal husbandry and dairying said, “During consultation, it has been viewed that enough time is required to understand the proposed draft and to make further comments/suggestions.”
Citing representations “expressing concerns on the proposed draft involving sensitivity and emotions with animal welfare and related aspects,” it said the draft “would need a wider consultation”.
The Live-stock and Live-stock products (Importation and Exportation) Bill, 2023 was “re-enactment” of the present Live-stock importation Act, 1898, and Live-stock Importation (Amendment) Act of 2001.
Department of animal husbandry and dairying officials said the draft was prepared as the existing Act is “pre-constitutional/pre-independence Central Act”. “…A need was felt to align it with contemporary requirements and prevailing circumstances related to sanitary and physio-sanitary measures and its extant Allocation of Business Rule, 1961,” said the order.
According to the draft bill, the new Act was aimed at framing “measures for the regulation of the importation of livestock and livestock products as well as promotion and development of exports of livestock and livestock products”. The bill included canines and felines in the list of livestock.
Opposing the bill, activists said it will open the floodgates for an unregulated, large-scale import and export of animals and also spoil the gene pool of native animals. 17 June was the last date for submitting suggestions/objections to the draft bill. Last week, animal rights activists and celebrities took to Twitter to oppose it, demanding its immediate withdrawal.
Animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi said to ThePrint, “Any import or export of animals as commodities is cruel upon them. A large number of native animals are being exported to climates that are not conducive to them.”
Welcoming the decision to withdraw the amendment, Ambika Shukla, a trustee at the People For Animals (PFA), said to ThePrint, “What is remarkable about the withdrawal of this amendment is that it has come through a spontaneous nation-wide protest led by citizens. This shows that animal welfare as a concept has taken roots in India; it is no longer considered a fringe movement.
“India has demonstrated that what happens to animals concerns us all. We are grateful to the government for being so responsive and responsible and we look forward to more such positive development. What we want to do is attack the concept of livestock transport. It needs to be ended. We want a complete ban on livestock transport.”
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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