Govt. should pass the Animal Welfare Bill

Like the Great Emperor Ashoka's edicts after a series of wars and bloodshed, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's policy statement to Parliament last year outlined his new Government’s policy saying it would be one nurtured by Buddhist teachings. Alas, his speech writer was not able to spot what seemed a clear contradiction in the statement which also called for his Government to be actively pursue a policy of increasing earnings by inter-alia, meat exports.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa soon thereafter announced a ban on the slaughter of cattle, but that never came to pass. Such extreme measures apart, in this holy week of Vesak, it is pertinent to dwell on the inability of successive Governments of recent vintage to implement a draft Animal Welfare Bill that has been on the drawing boards ever since the Law Commission handed it over to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2006, and got Cabinet approval for it. Its passage in Parliament has, therefore, been pending for 15 years.

The Buddha proclaimed; "May all beings be happy". This included animals and birds -- and fish. On the one hand, animal food is considered an essential item of protein in human diets, often as a substitute for unavailable vegetables, fruit or dairy. There is, however, a worldwide move to shift from animal products to substitutes, like what was done with ' soya meat'.

This is not on any religious grounds, but on the co-relationship between the multibillion dollar global meat industry, meat consumption -- and climate change. It is based on the amount of grain that is needed. According to the Smithsonian Institution, as much as 60 percent of the world's grain is consumed by cattle going into the meat market. Livestock is destroying the planet, it says, because of the wastage of water and land for grain that goes to feed cattle. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) states that a quarter of the world's terrestrial surface and a third of the arable land are used for livestock grazing aimed at the meat market.

The Animal Welfare Bill, however, is not entirely about the meat industry. Laws for the welfare of animals even existed during colonial times with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance of 1907. Animal rights have become an issue around the world today. The recent bloodbath of animals and birds "to appease the gods" at the Munneswaran Bhadra Kali Amman Kovil in Chilaw gave fresh impetus to local lobbyists urging the fast tracking of this Bill.

The former Government included the Bill as part of its 100day programme in 2015 and the then Minister of Hindu Religious Affairs tried to prohibit such bestial practices in a particular kovil but unlike the Butchers Ordinance that regulates (or is supposed to regulate) slaughter houses, there is no law to prohibit animal sacrifices nor did the Government pass the Bill.

Instead, by 2017, the draft Bill went to the Ministry of Rural Economy and then to the Ministry of Livestock for study. It showed how animal welfare became an economic issue despite changes to the scope of the Bill exempting animal slaughter for food consumption, transport of poultry and the like, even the use of animals for scientific experiments and culling for the control of the spread of disease.

It behoves President Rajapaksa, therefore, to take a look at this draft Bill which must be gathering dust somewhere in officialdom. Countries in Europe like Germany (Article 20), Switzerland (Art. 120) and Austria (Art. 11) have incorporated animal rights into their Constitution. There are several determinations now by Supreme Courts around the world giving wider interpretations to constitutional guarantees given to citizens, to include animals. Why is Sri Lanka, with its constitutional pre-eminence given to Buddhism lagging behind? The elephant- human conflict remains unresolved, animals at game parks are mere revenue sources for the State, and stray dogs are still often treated as 'chattel' rather than 'community dogs'.

Given the country's otherwise long established animal-friendly socio-cultural even religious heritage, not only must the Government accelerate the passage of the Animal Welfare Bill as a meritorious deed but go as far as conferring constitutional status, including justiciable protection on animals as sentient beings -- like human beings, with feelings, emotions, pain, and with a Right to Life.