Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
DAMODARAM
SANJIVAYYA
NATIONAL LAW
UNIVERSITY,
VISAKHAPATNAM
October 2016
Vernika
2013131
INDEX
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
SYNOPSIS........................................................................3
INTRDUCTION.................................................................4
ANIMAL RIGHTS.............................................................6
ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION........................................7
HUNTING AND POACHING.............................................8
CONCLUSION...................................................................13
BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................14
SYNOPSIS
Environmental Laws
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Whether our laws on animal protection adequate and implemented strictly?
Is protection of animal only our moral and ethical obligation or need to co-exist in an
inter-dependent ecosystem?
Whether we need to implement laws on animal protection more strictly?
NAME: Vernika
ROLL NO.: 2013131
VIIth Semester (section B)
1.1.
INTRODUCTION
3
Animal cruelty takes many forms and many victims, but the end result is always the same:
animal suffering. Animal Cruelty cases make headlines around the world every day, whether
its the person who kills the neighbours cat, the hoarder of sick and dying animals or the
family whose freezing, starving dog is tied up outside in the middle of the winter. Animal
Cruelty has several types which may be one of Simple Neglect, Gross Neglect, Intentional
Abuse, Animal Hoarding, Organized Abuse, Ritualistic Abuse or Animal Sexual Assault.
Government, NGOs and individuals will have to stand to combat this menace of animal
cruelty.
1.2.
kept stagnant at the backyard for hours if not days without proper shelter.
Gross Neglect: It can also be called wilful, malicious or cruel neglect. It is
important to make a distinction between simply failing to take adequate care of
animals and intentionally or knowingly withholding food or water needed to
prevent dehydration or starvation. Gross neglect is therefore the intentional act of
withholding food or water from an animal or group of animals. A typical example
of this type of cruelty is the case of people throwing away their sick dogs
clearly recognized.
Animal Hoarding : This is the accumulation of a large number of animals and
failing to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation and veterinary care; to
4
act on the deteriorating condition of the animals; and to recognize or correct the
negative impact on the health and well-being of the people in the household.
Examples of animal hoarding cases are: the transportation of large numbers of
animals in an in-humane way, the keeping of birds and other animals in a very
poor and un-conducive environment, pigs and other animals kept to starve to
2. ANIMAL RIGHTS
Compassion is the ultimate driving force behind animal rights
The origin of animal rights is unknown. Some claim that it started in ancient Buddhist and
Hindu text promoting a vegetarian diet for ethical reasons. The first public footstep into
modern times was in 1975, when philosopher Peter Singer published the book Animal
5
Liberation. One of the first organizations that served animal rights was the Animal Legal
Defense Fund, where a group of attorneys gathered and filed lawsuits that were
groundbreaking for animal rights. Several industries have been affected positively by the
animal rights movement. From agriculture to fashion to pet care, each industry has taken
steps to treat animals with a greater respect.
There have been nearly as many theories put forward as there have been philosophers.
They range from divine commandment to majority rule to pure self-interest. Some
philosophers even deny that there are such things as rights. In the interest of time, lets
take the pragmatic approach and just assume rights exist and that humans possess them.
Animal rights must then stand or fall on the ability to show that it is inconsistent or
irrational to grant rights to humans but to deny them to animals.
Do animals suffer pain?
Several years ago, a group of scientists and philosophers considered the issue of animal
pain. They came up with a list of 7 possible criteria by which the ability to feel pain might
be judged. These criteria include biological similarities in nerve and brain structure, and
behavioural responses to possibly noxious stimuli. While these tests do not provide an
absolute basis for identifying animal pain, they do serve as a useful tool for determining
the likelihood that living beings other than us feel pain.
Humans and animals
The use of high intelligence as a requirement for possessing rights such as life, liberty, and
freedom from torture is both inadequate and irrelevant. The same goes for all the other
characteristics usually put forward: language ability, tool use, tool creation, complex
emotions, altruism, etc. Besides being irrelevant, they have all been seen in some animals and
are lacking in some humans.
According to Jeremy BenthemIt was the ability to suffer that should be the benchmark of how we treat other beings. If
rationality were the criterion, he argued, many humans, including infants and the disabled,
would also have to be treated as though they were things.1
1 Benthall (2007), p. 1
6
He did not conclude that humans and non-humans had equal moral significance, but argued
that the latter's interests should be taken into account.
Charles Darwin was of the view
There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental
faculties, attributing to animals the power of reason, decision making, memory, sympathy,
and imagination2
Statute
Prevention of Cruelty on animals Act, 1960 establishes a Welfare Board for animals to
protect them from unnecessary pain and suffering. Section 11 of the act describes what
defines as cruelty towards animals. It also establishes that if owner fails to exercise
reasonable care and fails to provide them with food and shelter shall be cruelty towards
animals under this act.
3. ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
Every year in Britain alone millions of animals suffer and die in laboratory
experiments. In the past, people had to rely on bland assurances that animal experiments
were strictly controlled, of enormous benefit, and, in any case, the scientists had the
welfare of the animals at heart, however animal experiments are not only unnecessary
but dangerously misleading . . . adding to the burden of disease.3
Opponents of animal research claim that most research is cruel and unnecessary and that
animals are poor models for human diseases. Defenders of animal research counter that
most experiments do not involve pain or suffering and that, according to the National
Association for Biomedical Research, virtually every major medical advance of the last
century has depended upon research with animals.4
In the United States, animal experimentation emerged as a public-policy issue in the 19th
century, largely through the efforts of Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). One of Berghs first efforts as head of the
ASPCA was to draft a statute prohibiting cruelty to animals in New York state.
Philosophers in the last 20 years have begun to seriously address the basis, nature, and
scope of our moral obligations to animals; they have yet to reach a consensus. The legal
status of animals is equally perplexing and contradictory. Not only does the definition of
an animal vary from one state to another, but the same animal can have a different legal
status (and also be treated differently) depending on the use to which it is put.
Although the committees generally follow the principles known as the Three R that
experimental procedures should be refined to minimize pain and suffering, the number of
animals used should be reduced, and animals should be replaced with animals lower on
the phylogenetic scale or with non-animal models whenever possiblecomplex questions
remain.
Statutes
Section 14 of the Prevention of Cruelty on animals Act, 1960 renders that no experiments
on animals for the purpose of advancement by new discovery of physiological knowledge
or of knowledge which will be useful for saving or for prolonging life or alleviating
suffering or for combating any disease, whether of human beings, animals or plants.
Animal Research is Vital to Medicine
Experiments using animals have played a crucial role in the development of modern
medical treatments, and they will continue to be necessary as researchers seek to alleviate
existing ailments and respond to the emergence of new disease.
In the mid19th century, most debilitating diseases resulted from bacterial or viral
infections, but at the time, most physicians considered these ailments to be caused by
internal derangements of the body. The proof that such diseases did in fact derive from
external microorganisms originated with work done by the French chemist Louis Pasteur
and his contemporaries, who studied infectious diseases in domestic animals. Because of
his knowledge of how contaminants caused wine and beer to spoil, Pasteur became
convinced that microorganisms were also responsible for diseases such as chicken cholera
and anthrax.5
5 From Jack H. Botting and Adrian R. Morrison, Animal Research Is Vital to Medicine, ScientificAmerican,
February 1997. Reprinted with permission
6 Webster, N. (1968). Websters New 20th Century dictionary of the English Language (2nd ed.).
Cleveland: World Publishing Company. p. 1368
9
tree to extinction. Now, because of the increasing populations of gray wolves in the park,
elk populations are balancing out and the aspen tree is recovering.
Our ecosystems are sensitive and must be preserved. The economic challenges of a
community can lead to poaching, which in turn can lead to endangerment (and in the
worst cases, extinction) of different species. We need various species of flora and fauna in
our environmental ecosystems so that it can maintain healthy and balanced. The survival
of our own species depends on it.
Statute
Section 9 of Wildlife Protection (India) Act, 1972 prohibits hunting of animals; section 11
and section 12 are exception to it. Section 11 permits hunting under following
circumstances:a) Animal has become dangerous to human life and property
b) Animal has become disabled or diseased beyond recovery
Section 12 allows hunting of animal for special purposes such as :a) Education
b) Scientific
c) Scientific management
i.
ii.
d) Collection of specimens
i.
ii.
reinforce the idea of human dominion over animals. Quite simply, confinement, cruelty
and abuse are not entertaining.7
Circuses with animal acts are suffering from an increasingly poor image as the public
realizes that they are outdated spectacles. Critically endangered animals such as
chimpanzees, elephants and tigers are forced to perform degrading and often fearprovoking acts. Many circuses are guilty of not providing the most basic of necessities,
such as adequate care and housing for the animals. Many methods used to train animals to
perform tricks involve physical punishment. Animals may be beaten into submission with
whips, metal hooks, wooden bats and clubs. Some are muzzled, choked with tight collars,
shocked with electric prods or have their teeth or claws removed to make them more
Manageable.
It is virtually impossible to provide an acceptable quality of life in circuses for animals
that are wild by nature. Their physical, psychological and behavioural needs are so
complex that the living conditions will always be inadequate. This situation is especially
hard on animals such as elephants, who enjoy complex social lives in the wild.
Veterinarians qualified to treat exotic animals are not common.
Statutes
Section 22 of Prevention of Cruelty Act, 1960 restricts use of animals for purpose of
training or exhibition under following circumstances:i. any performing animal unless he is registered in accordance with
ii.
CONCLUSION
Almost everyone believes in animal rights, at least in some minimal sense; the real question
is what that phrase actually means. By exploring that question, it is possible to give a clear
sense of the lay of the landto show the range of possible positions, and to explore what
issues, of theory or fact, separate reasonable people. On reflection, the spotlight should be
placed squarely on the issue of suffering and well-being. This position requires rejection of
some of the most radical claims by animal rights advocates, especially those that stress the
autonomy of animals, or that object to any human control and use of animals. But this
position has radical implications of its own. It strongly suggests, for example, that there
should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, in scientific
experiments, and in agriculture. It also suggests that there is a strong argument, in principle,
for bans on many current uses of animals.
Man created our human rights of people and it is only man that uses this concept. The human
race needs to have the obligation to set limits for animal rights. The development of rights for
our animals should be an effective and a possible concept that can legally be looked at. We
must set a guideline for legal limits to humans when it comes to animals and their rights. If
not then there can be no way to prosecute legal issues that arise for those who overstep the
limits. Animals are vulnerable, defenceless and are controlled by us people to enforce animal
rights. For those that ignore the welfare of animals should need to be held responsible for
breaking the laws of animal rights.
Raising the issues of animal welfare is impossible to develop clear guidelines to judge by.
However the principle is no different between men and animal. Working out animal rights in
an actual practice that raise the concerns and role of ethics. Animals should be treated with
compassion. A right without compassion cannot be used as a justifiable action. Death holds a
clear position for animal rights. When we kill animals we need to make regulations so that
animals die a fast and painless death. By doing this will give the opportunity to those who eat
meat a way of knowing it is humane.
12
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARTICLES
author.
Animals in Entertainment, an Animal Alliance of Canada publication at
www.animalalliance.ca/entertai.html, December 1997
13