Welfare groups may file plea to stop cow slaughter in TN

CHENNAI, JUNE 11: Everybody knows that cows in India are considered holy. But what is not openly known is that these holy cattle along wi...

CHENNAI, JUNE 11: Everybody knows that cows in India are considered holy. But what is not openly known is that these holy cattle along with goats, pigs and hens are lined up for slaughter in Tamil Nadu despite a ban on cow slaughter.

According to a Government Order dated August 30, 1976, there is a quot;ban on cow slaughter, in the interest of milk production and improvement of rural economy. Government hereby directs that the slaughter of cows and heifers cow be banned in all the slaughter houses in Tamil Naduquot;.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Menaka Gandhi has given the go-ahead for animal welfare groups in Chennai to file a writ plea in court to prevent illegal smuggling and slaughter of cattle in Tamil Nadu. The Animal Welfare Board of India AWBI State secretary Saraswathi Ramaraj said that the executive council of the Board will meet next week to discuss the Minister8217;s letter.

Animal welfare organisations allege that over one lakh young cows, buffalos and bullocks are smuggled each month for slaughter to Kerala and Orissa through several routes in Tamil Nadu including Pollachi, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Dindigul and Ooty.

Gouhar Azeez of the Society for Animal Helpage India says that when high breed animals go dry after being administered with hormones at the dairy farm, villagers sell the cows for money.

Hygiene is another aspect that needs to be looked into. One has to see it to believe it. At the Chennai Corporation Slaughter House at Alandur Road, Saidapet and another one at Pulianthope, the public use the entrance and the compound as an open lavatory during the day after the slaughtering activity which usually takes place from 5 am to 11 am is over.

A shopkeeper nearby says that it is not just goats, but cows and pigs that are slaughtered there for beef and pork. Though only the two corporation slaughter houses are entitled to slaughter animals for meat, illegal slaughter houses are dime a dozen. Walk down the roads bordering the suburban railway lines in Chromepet, Tambaram or Saidapet, or any other butcher shops for that matter, they usually double up as slaughter houses.

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Balasubramanian, a local who goes for his morning walk down the 100-feet New Ambattur Industrial Estate Road, says the pavements resembles a virtual killing ground. A gory spectacle of splattered blood, sheared hair or a bunch of bones, greet anyone treading the path.

The cows are made to walk for a few hundred kilometres at a stretch, without water or rest before they are killed. Cattle that are transshipped are crowded into vehicles, flouting almost all the rules of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

Bullocks are largely subjected to diseases like tuberculosis and cancer as they are exposed to carbon while treading behind noxious fumes on city roads. Coupled with problems like maggots, gangrene, jaundice and intestinal worms, the quality of its meat is contentious, opine many animal lovers.