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In Gau Rakshaks' pet Andhra district, cows die of unbearable torture

Kakinada cow torture

In Andhra Pradesh, amid all the noise made by Gau Rakshaks, lies a living hell for sacred cows. In the coastal town of Kakinada in East Godavari district, in a century-old shelter for abandoned cows, which is now run by Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), one can see barely-alive cows and emaciated calves suffering from sickness and starvation.

 

About a hundred cows are on the verge of death. Many more, which were brought wounded, are expected to follow suit in a few days.

 

This is happening, despite the fact that Gau Rakshaks are aplenty in the district.

 

Exactly, a week ago, a band of self-styled Gau Rakshaks attacked two Dalit youth on the pretext that they were skinning a cow after killing it. Finally, it turned out to be a carcass of a cow which died of electrocution that the men were skinning.

 

Read more: PIL in SC for action against cow vigilantes for violent acts

 

The SPCA runs an animal shelter which houses about 400 to 500 animals and most of them are cows and calves. The cows are caught by the police while being transported illegally to abattoirs and are shifted to this shelter in Kakinada. The moment the police 'rescue' the cows, the torture, sometimes worse than merciful instant deaths, begins.

 

“The animals are transported in a tiered narrow container which can house not more than six animals. The cows can get on to the floor of the container with some difficulty. They can’t climb up to the other tiers. So, the practice followed is that they pierce a sharp iron rod into the anus of the cow. Then, the cow, with excruciating pain jumps up onto the first tier. To send the cows to second tier, the animal is pierced in the anus with more force,”  said Gopal Surabathula, manager of the shelter. Gopal, for his part, is trying his bast, but he receives little to no help from quarters that are supposed to help. 

 

The cruelty doesn’t end there. “They cram dozens of animals into that limited space of the container and tie them tightly with ropes to prevent them from moving in the container. Sometimes animals are packed like sardines squeezed into the narrow space in layers. Many a time we receive severely wounded cows - some with fractured legs, others with deep cuts on the body,” he added.

 

“A few animals die within days, unable to recover from the wounds. Others take months to recoup but only to face the next state of the hell of limited space, inadequate fodder and lack of medical treatment,” he added.

 

Read more: Will India ever see beyond the holy cow?

 

“We have 400 cows now. There is no space. But if we stop receiving them, they will end up in slaughter houses in Hyderabad. We can’t stop,” he said. Their request for more spacious shelter is pending with the government, Gopal said.

 

For the past one year, there has been no grant from the state government. “Now, some Marwaris are donating green grass and some others dry grass which is grossly inadequate. We employed a retired veterinary surgeon. We have no funds to take care of the sick properly,” he said.

 

Many locals complain that calves in the shelter are denied fodder. They, however, don’t blame the managers of the shelter for the sorry state of affairs. “The lack of funding, absence of enthusiasm in the public to help the society to feed the sacred cow is leading to the inadequate care to the abandoned cows,” K Srinivasa Rao a local resident informed Asianet Newsable.

 

Terming the cow vigilantism a fraud, he asked, “How come these Gau Rakshaks have been silent all these years, even though the sacred cows are transported to the shelter in a cruellest way?”

 

According to manager Gopal, the society is not in a position to take more cows under its care as the space is already overcrowded.

 

The Cow shelter was set up in 1906 by the then Raja of Pithapuram. It was registered in 1976. Now, it is run by the SPCA. Sometime back, due to some administrative problems, the committee that was constituted ot oversee the running of the shelter was scrapped.

 

Later, following a court judgement, the committee was restored but governmental aid was cut.

 

“The cows are being thrown from one hell to another in the name of rescue. Ironically, the meaning of ‘rescue’ has changed to ‘torture’ in this shelter, which was created to prevent cruelty to animals,” remarked a local journalist.

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