Goa Police and SPCA Invite PETA India to Lead Workshops to Combat Cruelty to Animals

 Goa Police and SPCA Invite PETA India to Lead Workshops to Combat Cruelty to Animals

Goa – On 23 April, police officers from the Goa Reserve Police and Indian Reserve Battalion (IRBn) gathered at the Goa Reserve Police Administrative Block in Altinho, Panaji, to attend a workshop conducted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India on combating cruelty to animals.

This important initiative was made possible under the visionary leadership of Shri Alok Kumar, IPS, Director General of Police, Goa.

Nearly 100 police officers, including police constables, head constables, assistant sub-inspectors of police, sub-inspectors of police, police inspectors, and Smt Sucheta Desai, the Superintendent of Police Training from the Goa Reserve Police and IRBn, participated in a three-hour-long workshop. The workshop covered the provisions of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960; the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2022); Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 and other animal relevant laws. Similar workshops were held for field officers and inspectors of the South and North Goa Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) on 25 and 26 April in Margaon and Panaji, respectively.

“The Goa Police aims to crack down on cruelty to animals, and PETA India is pleased to support them in this effort,” says Meet Ashar, PETA India’s Legal Advisor and Director of Cruelty Response. “On behalf of animals and society at large, we are thankful to the Goa Police for taking cruelty to animals seriously.”

Just last month, in March, PETA India, in collaboration with the North and South Goa SPCA, held similar workshops for the North Goa Police at Porvorim and South Goa Police in Margaon. A workshop was also held for constables and home guards under training at the Police Training School in Valpoi. The workshop for the South Goa Police was attended by police inspectors of all police stations, all sub-divisional police officers, and Tikam Singh Verma, IPS, the superintendent of police of South Goa. The seminar for the North Goa Police was attended by sub-inspectors of police from all police stations, police inspectors and a sub-divisional police officer. A similar workshop was held for the jurisdictional veterinary officers of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Goa, at Patto, Panaji. All veterinary officers of North and South Goa were in attendance.

With these one-of-a-kind workshops on animal protection laws, the entire Goa state police and the animal husbandry and veterinary services department are now sensitised on animal protection laws and procedures.

In 2021, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations released a report revealing that in the decade prior, nearly 500,000 animals – including cows and dogs – were victims of crimes.

PETA India notes that many violent criminals have a documented history of cruelty to animals. A study published in Forensic Research and Criminology International Journal warns, “Those who engage in cruelty to animals were [three] times more likely to commit other crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, assault, harassment, threats, and drug/substance abuse. The major motivations for engaging in cruelty to animals include anger, fun, control, fear, dislike, revenge, imitation, and sexual pleasure.”

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – has long campaigned to strengthen the PCA Act, 1960, which contains outdated, inadequate penalties, such as a maximum fine of only Rs 50 for convicted first-time offenders (although the BNS, 2023 prescribes stronger punishments). In a proposal sent to the central government regarding an amendment to the PCA Act, PETA India has recommended significantly increasing penalties for cruelty to animals.

For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.