Shocking scenes of cruelty and suffering were seen in a video released by Animal Equality, a Pune based animal protection organisation. The organisation conducted a study into pig farms, markets and slaughter of pigs in Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. They investigated 6 farms and 3 slaughter facilities in these states and found blatant illegalities in each case. The organisation documented:
– How pigs are cruelly handled by workers.
– It is common to see bruises on pigs.
– At farms they are forced to live in filthy conditions.
– Their excrement is collected in pools in the vicinity of the farm.
– When the pigs are sold for slaughter, they are loaded onto the vehicles by hitting them.
– During the slaughter they are stabbed in the heart several times, before they die.
– As per law, animals are to be slaughtered in licensed slaughterhouses but it was observed that these pigs were slaughtered in meat shops and market areas illegally.
Amruta Ubale, Executive Director of Animal Equality says, “In another study done in 2016 we documented how some meat shops in Kerala practise barbaric ‘hammer slaughter’ where the pig is repeatedly bludgeoned with a hammer on the head till the pig falls unconscious.”
She adds, “In India it is common to see pigs on streets in certain areas of a city or village and one may assume they are stray animals who eventually die naturally but these pigs are slaughtered for meat and this meat is consumed by the poor sections of the society. The pigs are tied by their legs, put in bags and loaded on scooters and rickshaws and slaughtered at illegal places like open grounds or meat shops.”
All these practices directly violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, and various rules formed therein. Still, the study finds these laws disregarded at every facility we visited.
