Blood is dripping from their pierced nose through which ropes have been inserted and tied. Their tears are mixed with blood; and their tails are firmly tied to the truck. Even their mouths are tied so that they cannot scream through the pain. This is how 35-40 buffa­los a truck are transported to Kathmandu every day.Several animal rights activ­ists were present when Sneha Shrestha, founder of Sneha’s Care that works for animal rights, talked about the brutal treatment of these animals at a public event in Lalitpur. Many got emotional when they saw a video on it.

 

Shrestha informed that the animal welfare guidelines were first drafted in 1999 and later amended in 2007. “But why are they not being imple­mented?” she asked.

 

She painted a picture of the buffalos transported via trucks to Kathmandu. There are many obstacles to trans­porting buffalos from the Indian border. A truck driver spends Rs 28,000 when transporting a truckload of these animals from Sarlahi district to Kathmandu in var­ious legal and illegal levies. Likewise, according to truck drivers, they have to pay Rs 100,000 to Rs 150,000 for a truck of goats. There is thus great incentive to cut costs.

 

The guidelines state that the animals should be fed properly, given enough space to move and physically unharmed while they are transported; they should have a comfort­able journey. However, “every day, 500-600 buffalos enter Kathmandu and each of them has the same horrific ride,” Shrestha added.

 

 

The Director General of the Department of Livestock Services Bimal Kumar Nir­mal said that despite efforts to bring a law on animal welfare, they had been unable to do so. Nonetheless, he com­mitted to tirelessly working to end cruelty against animals. “We had a provision in the proposed law that outlawed such,” he said.

 

“If a goat is found dead while it is being transported, we can charge no more than Rs 5,000 in fines,” said Modnath Gau­tam of Central Animal Quaran­tine department. Because of such paltry fines people who transport animals are careless. In Gautam’s opinion, the laws should be stricter.

 

The police do not bat an eye when they see the bru­tal way in which the animals are transported. “There are also cases where drivers have presented signed papers from quarantine officers even though the mentioned officers were absent from their posts,” Shrestha revealed.

 

The registrar of the Nepal Veterinary Council Narayan Prasad Ghimire said that state and local governments are better placed to deal with these problems. The local governments have the powers to punish the rule-breakers, he said, “and even to send them to jail.”

By Nitu Ghale | Lalitpur