The Kasaragod District Police Chief (DPC) has issued notice to the organisers of a kambala (buffalo racing) event scheduled to take place at Paivalike village in the Manjeswaram police station limits on December 15, asking them to call off the programme in the light of the court order banning bull races.
The police intervention followed an alert from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. District Police Chief A. Srinivas confirmed that a notice had been issued to the organisers highlighting the illegality of the event.
“The Supreme Court and the High Court of Kerala have made it clear that bull races are illegal and there’s no place in civilised society for whipping bulls and twisting and biting their tails, as is common at such events, to force them to run,” PETA India Lead Emergency Response Coordinator Meet Ashar said in a press note here on Friday.
PETA report
A report prepared by PETA India states that bulls used in kambala events organised in Karnataka were subjected to cruelty. Reluctant buffalo bulls were pushed, pulled by nose ropes, dragged to the starting point, and rampantly beaten using wooden sticks throughout the races. Some also had marks on their bodies from previous beatings. Many who finished the races were frothing at the mouth, salivating heavily, and displayed increased respiration rates, the report said. On September 5, 2014, the High Court of Kerala had issued an order stating that it was bound by the observations and views of the Supreme Court judgment that banned bull races across the country.
Last week, following a petition filed by PETA India, the Supreme Court of India issued notices to the State government of Karnataka, the Animal Welfare Board of India, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The court also tagged this matter with the ongoing cases in which PETA India has challenged similar State laws that allow the use of bulls for jallikattu in Tamil Nadu and bullock cart races in Maharashtra.