Almost a decade ago, in 2012, at a national conference organised in Goa by the All India Federation of Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), the then CM, late Manohar Parrikar had told the gathering: “In 10 years I will make Goa an exemplary State for animal welfare.”
Parrikar has passed on, but on September 8, 2020, the government of Goa approved the Animal Health and Welfare Policy prepared by the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services for 2020-2025. This is only the second State that has adopted such a policy – Delhi being the first.
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The policy is laudable for many reasons. Firstly, there was wide consultation in the preparation of the document. Apart from bureaucrats and heads of various stakeholder departments that were participants at such meetings, for the first time, NGOs were invited to provide their inputs. While ‘production’ animals – milch animals, chickens and piggeries – have always been the sole focus of the Animal Husbandry Department in view of its developmental approach and the returns these animals bring to the owners and their livelihoods, the NGOs have been concerned with the welfare of stray animals – from dogs to cows on streets. Their perceptions were an important necessary ingredient of what should constitute a health and welfare policy for the animals in the State and proved to be an advantage. The Department not only listened patiently but took a representative from the NGO sector on its drafting committee.
The objectives of the new policy are no longer limited to just improving the production potential of animals, but they include establishment of facilities for ensuring that animals have a decent health regime and are looked after when they are not useful to their owners. To this end the policy proposes setting up state-of-the-art diagnostic facilities, a 24×7 call centre for animals in distress, sensitisation of the public, rehabilitation of aged and abandoned animals, infirmaries, cattle sanctuaries, development of an android app for reporting animal cruelty cases and so on. This is enough to indicate that the Animal Husbandry Department has moved on from animal production alone to incorporate animal welfare as well.
The policy document begins with the usual affirmation that the AH Dept is committed to the welfare of farmers and is concerned with “generating gainful employment opportunities for their economic upliftment” as they play “a major role in the care of livestock which serves as a source of providing nutritious protein rich food in the form of milk, meat and eggs.” It then branches out into the services that the department provides to farm animals, companion animals and birds. It lists rehabilitation of stray cattle in gaushalas as one of its activities. Among the 42 regulations that it are required to enforce, no less than 30 pertain to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act alone and the various rules and notifications issued under it – the balance 12 pertain to livestock improvement, prevention and control of infectious diseases, taxes, etc.
I was surprised to know that there are no less than 20 State sponsored schemes for providing assistance, loans and subsidies to farmers, and another 10 Central govt sponsored schemes for the same purpose. Three of the State schemes are concerned with the control of the stray dog population, rehabilitation of stray cattle and making Goa rabies-free.
Among the projects on the anvil for the next five years are the setting up of super-speciality polyclinics with emergency services, veterinary ambulances with hydraulic lifts, a toll-free animal call centre, a specialised avian health facility, mobile veterinary dispensaries for the rural talukas, district and state-level laboratory facilities and a mortuary and incinerator facility for proper disposal of animal carcasses – a facility badly needed. The department intends to create a database mapping of animal welfare groups, activists, gaushalas, veterinary clinics and hospitals “to address, coordinate and facilitate action to improve the welfare of animals – including cruelty cases, rescue, treatment and rehabilitation.” It proposes to set up animal shelters and infirmaries under the District SPCAs as well as cattle sanctuaries, one each in North and South Goa, for the rehabilitation of stray cattle.
“Public awareness about humane treatment of animals is most important”, states the policy document and to this end it proposes to use both TV and radio to create programmes which will show that “we need to co-exist with our animal friends and treat them with dignity.” Besides training dairy and livestock farmers, the department proposes to provide training to pet owners on their duties towards their pets.
Another welcome step is the modernisation of the poultry sector to enhance poultry production “in line with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regulations.” The policy proposes a phasing out of the old cage-layer poultry sheds and replacing the same with deep litter sheds and advanced methods such as ovo-sexing of eggs to avoid male chicks, which are generally simply disposed of at birth.
Not only is the animal birth control programme being supported for dogs and cats, but the dept suggests the need to introduce sex-sorted semen in cattle, to curb the birth of male calves. The policy document concludes with a reach-out to the agricultural sector, proposing a fodder bank to reduce the dependency of dairy farms on neighbouring states and providing, in exchange, dung and manure to revitalise an organic agriculture revolution.
The policy signals a new start. It may take time to implement, and some ideas may need to be fine-tuned, but the vision is certainly creating a society that is more humane to animals.
(Norma Alvares is a Lawyer and an Environmental Activist and a Padma Shri awardee)
