Animals and human beings have been getting along since ages. We humans put them into endless uses and live happily. Domesticated pets like dogs, cats get abundant affection from us and they also do their bit in turn. Long live human-animal affection! Nevertheless, human cruelty on animals is not a rare thing. Many endangered species get killed for petty monetary benefits. The recent case of Shakitman is another shame to the stories of human cruelty on animals.
Shaktiman is a part of police mounted unit of Uttarakhand. She grabbed media attention suddenly when she got brutally assaulted allegedly by BJP’s lawmaker Ganesh Joshi and his men during a protest a few days ago. Not a new thing for BJP whose members grab headlines mostly for the wrong reasons. While politics started playing out on the back of innocent, poor Shaktiman, her hind leg had to be finally amputated to prevent gangrene spread all over which might have proven fatal to the animal.
Finally, after three days, amidst allegations and counter allegations, the accused BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi has been arrested, charged with cruelty and maiming an animal. The congress ruled Uttarakhand Chief Minister has assured all possible treatments for Shaktiman. The case also saw a huge outpour of public sympathy and hashtag #PrayForShakitman became twitter trend as soon as the news of her amputation surgery spread.
The Union Minister and Animal activist Menaka Gandhi has condemned this incident in strong words demanding the expulsion of accused Ganesh Joshi from the party. While the animal silently suffers, it certainly raises a few questions. In this age of modern technology, why are horses still used for mob controlling purposes? Such horses are already trained ones and will not harm anyone; still beating up animals brutally with lathi is appalling.
Now it’s the duty of the courts to establish the case and deliver justice accordingly, the case can serve better to the cause of animal rights. Using horses for such purposes is remnant of colonial era and we need to address this issue without any delay. According to The Indian Express report, penalty for animals beating, kicking over-drives and over-loads and such is merely Rs. 10-50. The proposal to increase the penalty for mistreatment of animals has been pending for several years now.
We can really hope that the present case of Shakitman helps addressing some of these animal rights issues also.
