Draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (Amendment) Bill-2022

Why in News?

• The Government has recently introduced the draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (Amendment) Bill-2022 to amend the six-decade-old law Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act, 1960.

Highlights

• The draft includes ‘bestiality’ as a crime under the new category of ‘gruesome cruelty’.
• “Bestiality” means any kind of sexual activity or intercourse between human being and animal.
• Gruesome cruelty has been defined as “an act that leads to extreme pain and suffering to the animals which may cause lifelong disability or death
• A minimum fine of Rs 50,000 may be imposed and may be increased to Rs 75,000 by a judicial magistrate in consultation with the jurisdictional veterinarians, or the cost may be determined by the judicial magistrate whichever is more, or a maximum fine of one year that may be extended to three years
• A maximum 5-year imprisonment, along with a fine
• The Act has been criticised for being ‘speciesist’ (put very simply, the assumption that humans are a superior species deserving more rights), for its quantum of punishment being negligible, for not defining ‘cruelty’ adequately, and for slapping a flat punishment without any gradation of crimes.