COLVA: An NGO People for Animals (PFA) has petitioned South Goa District Collector Ruchika Kanyal, Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena, Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Kuldseep Singh Gangar, besides the Colva Police Inspector to register a complaint and conduct an immediate investigation into the violent and near fatal bullfight (dhirio) in Benaulim.
In her complaint with photos attached, Adv Norma Alvares of PFA stated that “on February 16, some people organised a bullfight which is also popularly known as dhirio, and one of the bulls was brutally attacked and almost killed. However, it survived in the end. The incident took place in the Benaulim fields.”
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
“It is alarming that more than 30 different dhirios have been reported to have taken place in the Colva Police Station jurisdiction just in 2021 i.e. less than six weeks, at an average of more than five bullfights per week just in Colva. This is both, an alarming and unprecedented trend. The practice of dhirio is illegal as per the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA). Moreover, the practice of dhirio was banned by the High Court of Bombay at Goa in the PFA versus the State of Goa case in 1997, as against the provisions of the PCA (1997 (4) Bom CR 271). This decision has also been upheld by the Supreme Court of India.”
Adv Alvares further pointed out to the 1997 judgement of the High Court of Bombay at Goa regarding the need for an active enforcement of the ban.
She quoted, “The bullfights or dhirios are in contravention of the provisions of the said PCA Act and therefore illegal and cannot be permitted to be organised. The respondents are, therefore, directed to take immediate steps to ban all types of animal fights including bullfights and dhirios in the State of Goa.”
