After appeals from Mercy For Animals India Foundation and other animal protection organisations, the director of animal husbandry and veterinary services has issued a notification prohibiting the manufacture, use, and sale of gestation and farrowing crates for pigs in the state of West Bengal. West Bengal has the fourth-largest pig population in the country.
The notification follows orders by the Manipur, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Delhi governments banning gestation crates after a Mercy For Animals India Foundation campaign. Upon learning about the plight of pigs confined in gestation crates from Mercy For Animals India Foundation, Bollywood star and animal lover John Abraham sent a letter to Shri Parshottam Rupala, union minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, urging a nationwide ban on gestation and farrowing crates. Earlier this year, Mercy For Animals in partnership with Humane Society International India and People For Animals Uttarakhand had urged the central government to prohibit gestation crates.
A right-to-information response furnished by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) National Research Centre on Pigs states that gestation and farrowing crates severely restrict movement and hence violate Section 11(1)(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. ICAR referred to a demi-official letter dated January 2014 to all veterinary universities and the National Research Centre on Pigs advising against the use of gestation crates in universities or research facilities. ICAR also cited the Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Punjab, which had issued directives to district officers to ensure that no gestation crates are used in the state.
Join us in urging the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of gestation and farrowing crates for pigs across India.
