Tamil Nadu: New Act restricts exploitation of animals, ensures food safety

Chennai: Expect the escalation of meat prices very soon, as the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has come up with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017, an amendment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

The new set of the rules pertaining to four subjects — cattle market, breeding of animals, aquarium fish market and illegal transportation of cattle — is a welcome measure, as it restricts the exploitation of animals and ensures food safety.

Under the new law, Cattle cannot be brought to an animal market (or a fair) for sale for slaughter and the existing animal markets will have to be registered with the District Animal Market Monitoring Committee within three months. Explaining the provision, G Arun Prasanna, Founder of the People For Cattle in India (PFCI) said: "It is not a ban on cattle slaughter. It is a restriction of cattle slaughter from the shandies, to rule out health hazard. Most of the diseased cattle are brought to shandies for sale. By banning it, illegal transportation of animals would also drastically come down."

But how will the general public obtain meat now? The new rule ensures a transparency in the meat sale, as only the authorised slaughterhouses can purchase the animals from the permitted dairy farms. The prime aim of the dairy farms monitored by the veterinary officers is to ensure that only healthy meat goes into one's platter.

However, as a primary route of slaughter through shandies is blocked, there are chances for the shoot up of meat prices, opined Arun Prasanna, adding that the new rule would safeguard public health.

Explaining the malpractices in slaughterhouses, a retired official of the meat corporation said, "If not for our safe cooking practices, we would have been affected by many bacterial diseases, due to the consumption of meat from the untidy slaughter houses. The new rule is excellent, as it puts a check to the illegal slaughter."

The official, who worked in the meat corporation suggested ways of bringing down the meat price. "The sheep breeding cooperative societies and the government should regulate the price by reducing the number of middlemen from the producer to the consumer," said the official.