President instructs officials: Take stern action against animal torture
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has instructed officials to take stern action against those involved in animal torture.
The President gave these instructions when representatives of an anti animal torture organization met him recently.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa drew attention to the illegal transportation of cattle.
The President instructed the Livestock Development Ministry to take action to look after cattle which are seized while being illegally transported. On the advice of the President, protected areas will be designated for the cattle.
In addition to these initiatives, the Government presented regulations for Number 29 of the 1958 Animals’ Act in Parliament recently.
The prime objective of the new regulations is to provide legal provisions to control the slaughter, transporting, branding and upgrading of animal breed.
According to law, animals should be transported with least harassment. Besides, the new regulation will provide legal provisions for claiming animal ownership use of easy methods of identification such as ear tagging in place of branding for identification of cattle, establishing animal care and monitoring centres and so on.
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Around the world there are people who are vegetarians. They are a minority. Most people eat meat. Meat is a source of protein. However, meat has also fat. Too much animal fat is bad for us due to clogging-up of our blood vessels with cholesterol leading to heart attacks, strokes and death.
Lentils and pulses are secondary proteins. Vegetarians eat pulses in their diet. Vegetarian meals have no ‘bad’ fat. Hence it is healthier to be vegetarian. Many animals that are plant eaters live longer unlike carnivores. Tortoises live for 200 years. We breed livestock for our diet. The way we breed them can be cruel. They live a life of suffering before they end-up on our plate. We must stop this. Chickens which are penned-up in small cages, unable to move about through the whole of their short lives, bred to lay eggs and then to be killed for food, live in agony. They have no exercise and are malformed. This manner of raising chicken is for commercial reasons to maximise profit. Range chickens, however, are free to run about in the farm. They are expensive to breed. However, they are free of suffering. Animals suffer because of the way they are bred to maximise profit. Perhaps SL can lead the way to stop animal cruelty in livestock breeding. Ideally, we should all be vegetarians to lead desease free longer lives.
I do hope Hon President turn his attention to stop animal sacrifice, as happened a few months ago in Chilaw or Puttalam in a temple dedicated to Kali. 200 goats were sacrificed by slitting their throats in a ritual of sacrifce to the goddess. I deplore this animal sacrifice as primitive. One and only true God does not need animal sacrifices to hear our prayers. God is more pleased with a life of righteousness, detachment, and sacrifice in helping one another, especially the poor and the needy. God is more pleased if we share what we have extra with someone who has nothing. God will bless us then and live within us granting us peace and joy. No amount of wealth can bring this sort of happiness as experienced when God is dwelling in the soul of one who is righteous. No robber can steal it. Besides, when one dies, this spiritual wealth can be taken along to eternal life, unlike material wealth. So, Hon President, please stop this practice of animal sacrifice.