By Dr Swati Jindal Garg
In a ludicrous case, the police in Badaun, UP, filed a chargesheet against a 30-year-old potter, accused of allegedly killing a rat by tying it to a brick and drowning it in a drain. The accused was booked in November 2022 under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code that penalises mischief by killing or maiming cattle along with Section 11 (1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
The complainant was Vikendra Sharma, an animal rights activist, who saw a viral video purportedly showing the dead rat with its tail tied to a stone. An autopsy was done of the rat, wherein it was confirmed that the cause of death was “dry drowning”. The carcass was sent to a veterinary hospital in Budaun for autopsy, but the staff refused to examine it, following which it was sent to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly. “Our experts concluded the rat died due to asphyxiation caused by lung infection,” KP Singh, joint director of IVRI, reportedly, said. Following this report, the police filed a 30-page chargesheet in court against the accused.
The accused man’s father justified his son’s act by saying: “Rats had damaged utensils made using soil, and had turned them into mounds of soil. This caused mental and financial problems to him. If action is taken against my son, then action should also be taken against those who butcher goats, hens and fishes. Action should also be taken against those who sell the rat killing chemical.”
Cases relating to animals and birds often reach levels which confound everyone. Recently, UP forest officials took into custody a Sarus (crane) from one Arif who had rescued the bird. He was accused of committing a crime under the Wildlife (Protection) Act “by keeping the crane”. Arif, on the other hand, claimed that he had found this crane a year ago when it stumbled into his fields with a broken leg. He said he healed it with the same techniques he used on his hens. As the crane continued to live with Arif and bond with him, videos of the two went viral in February this year. Soon, forest officials came to know of it and moved the bird to Kanpur zoo as it was no longer fit for survival in the wild as its diet had changed to eating dal, roti and rice.
While these are cases where action has been taken against humans who were purportedly cruel to animals, even animals have been charged for harming humans. Ramachandran, an elephant in Kerala, was arrested for killing three persons in 2013. The animal was kept under supervision and a criminal case was filed against it, followed by a hefty fine which the owner gave for the animal to be released.
Then there was another case wherein three goats were arrested by police officials in Chennai in 2013 after they were accused of trying to damage a police vehicle. The goats had purportedly climbed onto a brand new police car and damaged its wipers and glass. They were later released on a request by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Similar cases exist abroad too. In 2011, Pakistani officials arrested a monkey which was believed to have crossed over from India. The monkey was captured by wildlife officials and taken to a zoo where he was kept for the rest of his days. This case seemed to be a counter blast to another case where the Indian police arrested a pigeon which was believed to have flown in from Pakistan and slapped charges of spying against it. The pigeon had reportedly been caught with a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body with red ink. The pigeon was eventually released as no note could be found on its body. In another case, a criminal case was filed against a cat in 2016 while it was trying to smuggle in mobile phones and chargers inside a Russian prison.
In Mexico, a donkey that was believed to have kicked two men in 2008 was kept in a cell where people caught for drinking and causing other disturbances are placed. The donkey was released only when its owner paid the medical expenses incurred against the two men in full.
Crimes against animals have often verged on the horrific. In 1995, in Westminster, Colorado, a putrid smell from a van led authorities to 1,112 turtles, of which more than 100 had died after being baked, crushed and starved inside burlap bags. Another 979 were found severely dehydrated. “It’s probably the worst case of animal cruelty that I’ve ever seen,” said Deputy City Attorney Don Cocek, after filing animal cruelty and neglect charges in September against Mark Rommel Osterholt, the 28-year-old operator of a Canoga Park seafood company.
Then, there was the case of a Christmas tree mogul Stuart Miller and his son William who went on trial for the death of a European deer they had displayed at their tree lot. One of a herd of eight deer died at their Granada Hills house. City animal control officers also said that the dead deer had chicken wire and coat hangers tangled in its antlers and around its neck. In addition to the charge of animal cruelty, the Millers were charged with possessing a wild animal without a license. They denied any wrongdoing and their defense attorney complained in court that the timing of the trial—a week before Christmas—was an attempt to portray his clients as the Grinch who killed Rudolph. The judge refused to delay the trial and punished them.
The link between early cruelty to animals and later violent and aggressive crime has been documented for decades. But now academic research has uncovered chilling evidence of the psychological effect on children of witnessing cruelty to animals, and prompted widespread efforts to step in and halt them.
A case in support is that of Jeffrey Dahmer, the “Milwaukee cannibal” who dismembered 17 people three decades ago. Dahmer had first practised his butchery by cutting up dogs and cats and impaling their heads on sticks. Another famous case is that of Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, who tortured and killed five children in the 1960s. He had boasted of killing his first cat when he was just 10, and went on to burn another cat alive, stone dogs and cut off rabbits’ heads before going on to target people. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables would shoot pigeons with air rifles and tie rabbits to railway lines to watch them be run over—until in 1993 they killed toddler James Bulger.
In a study conducted in Romania by researchers from Teesside University, it was revealed that nearly nine teenagers in 10—a staggering 86.3%—thought it was “normal” to see homeless animals being abused or killed. The teenagers were also found to be more likely than youngsters in Germany, a control group, to later self-harm or have suicidal tendencies. As children, nearly all of those questioned, had witnessed street animals being caught in a noose, poisoned or hanged.
In fact, Malcolm Plant in his paper titled, “Making the Link”, said that “put together, Romania’s street dog culling, violence rates and the study’s findings demonstrate a clear point: witnessing brutality to animals desensitises young people and makes them prone to aggression for life. It’s highly likely that an animal abuser will also be abusing humans. It has also been found that not only have most animal abusers been exposed to violence and abuse themselves, but that this has resulted in reduced empathy and a normalisation of aggression, so there is a high likelihood that this violence will be enacted against spouse, children and within society against people and property”.
These findings could revolutionise the way abuse behind closed doors is tackled worldwide, preventing thousands of harrowing cases of domestic violence and murder each year, as well as abuse of children and the elderly. Researchers believe their work can even be adapted to prevent prisoners from carrying out other violent crimes.
All said and done, it cannot be denied that if animal abuse is prevented in the first place by the threat of more severe punishments, not only will pets and strays cease to be soft targets, youngsters will also be prevented from using them as a stepping stone to future crime.
—The writer is an Advocate-on-Record practicing in the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and all district courts and tribunals in Delhi