After receiving appeals from Mercy For Animals India Foundation, the director of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services, Manipur, issued a circular banning the production, sale, and use of gestation and farrowing crates. The circular directs the animal husbandry unit to ensure that under Section 11(1)(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, no pig farm in the state uses these crates.
The order comes after the recent ban on gestation and farrowing crates by the Delhi government and a Mercy For Animals India Foundation campaign against the use of these crates. Bollywood star John Abraham wrote to Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala to impose a nationwide ban on gestation and farrowing crates after learning about the crates from Mercy For Animals India Foundation.
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. 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.
Help Pigs! Urge the government to ban gestation and farrowing crates in India.
