The Punjab and Haryana High Court has accorded the
status of legal person or entity to
animals, granting them the “corresponding rights, duties,
and liabilities of a living person”. The Bench also provided
guidelines for the accord.
Guidelines:
- It has fixed load to be carried by animals and banned their deployment for pulling vehicles inextreme cold and heat conditions.
- The use of spike sticks, harness or yoke with spikes, knobs, projections and other sharp instruments were also banned in Haryana, to begin with, for avoiding bruises, swelling, abrasions and severe pain to them.
- To avoid inconvenience to animals the court directed the police to ensure that carts driven by animals were given the “right of way”.
- Their use was also limited to nine hours a day in the aggregate, and not more than five hours without a break.
- It also owners to put fluorescent reflectors in the front and back of their carts and the animals shall also be covered with stripes of fluorescent reflectors for their identification at night.