KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 11
The government is doing groundwork to come up with the Animal Welfare Bill to end cruelty against animals.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, a nine-member committee headed by director general at the Department of Livestock Services had been tasked with drafting the bill to prevent intentional cruel treatment of animals.
The committee was formed in exercise of the powers conferred by section 27 of the Animal Health and Livestock Services Act, 1999. The committee includes as members officials of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs, Animal Health Division at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Guthi Sansthan and animal rights activists.
Cruelty against animals refers to knowingly depriving them of food, water, shelter and veterinary care or maliciously torturing them. It also involves inflicting harm, injuring, or killing animals through torture, wilfully letting them go loose or stray and transporting them without maintaining prescribed standards, among others.
As per the MoALD, the other functions, duties and powers of the committee are to provide suggestions to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development for formulation of appropriate policies to end animal cruelty and promote animal welfare activities, identify and implement appropriate programmes for prevention of animal cruelty, coordinate with the provincial and local levels to discourage such acts, collaborate with governmental, non-governmental agencies and civil society, prepare and implement code of ethics for non-governmental organisations working for animal welfare, and form and mobilise task forces as needed.
The secretariat of the committee is situated at the MoALD. In 2021, a video of a dog named Khaire being hit by an iron rod and a shovel in Dhulikhel had gone viral on social media. It led to a protest against animal cruelty. The video depicted the scene of two men tying Khaire to a utility pole and thrashing it until it died. The men killed Khaire after it injured a local boy who was trying to feed it peanuts. It led to a public petition - 'justice for Khaire' - calling animal lovers to join the protest. .
Violence against animals is a punishable crime as per the Criminal Code Act. Killing of a community dog can attract a jail term up to three months and a fine up to Rs 5,000.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 12, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
