{"id":97978,"date":"2020-01-19T18:33:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T01:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97978"},"modified":"2020-01-19T18:33:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T01:33:32","slug":"implement-animal-welfare-bill-urge-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/19\/implement-animal-welfare-bill-urge-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Implement Animal Welfare Bill\u2019, urge activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY RAJITHA JAGODA ARACHCHI Courtesy Sunday Observer<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"Dog<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dog\nneeding care.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sensing danger, the dog started whimpering and running in the\nmassive cage. But there was no room for escape. The cold-hearted gunman started\nshooting at the poor animal, while it tried to cry out loud saying, help me\u201d.\nAmid back to back bullets, it tried to stop the gunman by jumping onto him and\nthe man stopped the dog by hitting it with his gun. Then another shot was fired\nand the dog just laid on the floor in pain. That\u2019s the end of the video\ncirculating on social media for the past couple of days, revealing information\nabout an animal dungeon in Kobeigane, Nikaweratiya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was not the first and would not be the last incident we\nwill hear or see about the torture of animals and unleashing of unimaginable\ncruelty upon them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a year ago most Sri Lankans were shocked hearing the death\nof a dog named \u2018Charlie\u2019, who died after someone set it on fire while it was\nsleeping in its cage. A few days ago another video was shared on social media\nwhere an elephant named \u2018Myan Kumar\u2019 belonging to a famous Buddhist temple was\ninhumanely beaten by a servant. These shocking incidents brought public\nattention back to the long due Animal Welfare Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Currently, the animal\npopulation excluding wildlife, is protected by an outdated law, Prevention of\nCruelty to Animals Ordinance, 1907 (amended). According to this Ordinance, the\nmaximum fine for a person found guilty on an offence related to torturing animals\nis a mere Rs. 100, which clearly indicates the dire need for a new legal\nprovision to protect innocent animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney-at-Law and currently Senior Adviser to Justice for\nAnimals Sri Lanka, Senaka Weeraratna points out that as the penalty which is more\nthan a century-old is no real deterrent on potential offenders committing\nheinous crimes related to cruelty to animals, the police is reluctant to\ninvestigate and prosecute offenders for the simple reason: Because anybody can\nget away today by paying the Rs. 100 fine\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realising the archaic and obsolete character of the outdated\nOrdinance, the Law Commission decided to update the governing legislation by\ndrafting an Animal Welfare Bill and completed the exercise in 2006. Senaka\nWeeraratna who served as the Honorary Legal Consultant on animal welfare\nlegislation to the Law Commission steered the drafting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We handed it over to the then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa in\n2006 as a piece of draft legislation of the Law Commission. But though almost\n14 years has now elapsed, it is still in the pipeline with no certainty of\nseeing light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Weeraratna lamented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Parliamentarian Ven. Athuraliye Rathana There presented\nan Animal Welfare Bill based on the Law Commission draft as a Private Member\u2019s\nBill to the Parliament and the last government had given cabinet approval to\nthe enactment of the Bill. But so far nothing has come into effect because of\nstiff opposition from sectors that exploit and abuse animals for private profit\n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animals do not have clout, money and votes. I think that is why\nnone of the lawmakers bother to take up the cause of animals in Parliament by\narticulating their pain and suffering, and their grievances and enact the\nAnimal Welfare Bill. It\u2019s just sad that we are shamefully so far behind the\nrest of the world in this respect. If foreign critics take the same interest on\nour track record on Animal Rights as much as they do on our adherence to Human\nRights, we will then have nowhere to look,\u201d Weeraratna commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, cruelty towards animals is not just a subject to\nstray animals. Even pets are sometimes badly treated by their owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President of Animal Welfare and Protection Association (AWPA)\nHemantha Jayatilake told the Sunday Observer that the association frequently\nreceives complaints from people about pets ill treated at homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are not given food properly. Some are beaten. And some are\nconfined to kennels for 24 hours. But we as a welfare organisation have no\nauthority to enter into private homes and rescue animals. It is a job for the\npolice,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jayasinghe also thinks that educating people on how to handle\npets is also a must. We need the support of media in that cause. At least\nmedia should advise people that torturing animals is not something acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However if the government steps in and make cruelty to animals\na punishable offence, I think we can save a lot of animals\u201d she opined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baw Baw, an organisation dedicated to the well-being of animals\nis now eyeing to work closely with the government to reduce the number of stray\ndogs on streets who are often subjected to torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe that a 3-5 year island-wide sterilisation program\nfor stray dogs would do justice for both dogs and people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the consistency of such program is essential,\u201d founder of\nBaw Baw and animal welfare activist Gihan Dinushka opined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dinushka and other supportive activists have prepared a proposal\nwith 15 demands which are important towards the betterment of animal welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These demands include establishing a state animal welfare\ncommittee which could overlook all matters related to domestic animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy: Sunday Observer (January 19, 2020)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY RAJITHA JAGODA ARACHCHI Courtesy Sunday Observer Dog needing care. Sensing danger, the dog started whimpering and running in the massive cage. But there was no room for escape. The cold-hearted gunman started shooting at the poor animal, while it tried to cry out loud saying, help me\u201d. Amid back to back bullets, it tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}