On meat, Karnataka has a ‘stunning’ order

People stand in a queue to buy meat on Ugadi Hosa Thodaku, in Bengaluru on Sunday. Pic/PTI

The Karnataka Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services Department has asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to direct all slaughterhouses and chicken shops in the city to ensure that animals are "stunned" mandatorily, before they are slaughtered for meat. It has asked the Bengalur ucivic body to check the stunning facility, while issuing licences for slaughterhouses and chicken shops.

Though such communication is said to be a routine affair, it has come amidst controversy around right-wing groups giving a call to boycott ‘halal' meat during Ugadi festivities. Citing the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, in a letter dated April 1, the Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, Bengaluru Urban district, has written a letter to BBMP for ensuring stunning of animals before they are slaughtered for meat.

Stating that the department has received complaints from the public that the rules are not being followed, it asked BBMP to direct all slaughterhouses and chicken shops in the city to make sure that animals are stunned mandatorily and are unconscious, before they are slaughtered. Further, asking the civic body to check about the stunning facility while issuing licences for slaughterhouses and chicken shops, it has asked the BBMP to report to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Bengaluru Urban, about the action taken.

Recently some right-wing groups had given a call to boycott ‘halal' meat, ahead of ‘varshadodaku', the day after Ugadi (Sunday), when many communities in the state have a non-vegetarian feast. BJP national general secretary C T Ravi had even called halal food "economic jihad". Over the past few days, the clamour for denial of permission to non-Hindu traders and vendors to carry out business during annual temple fairs and religious events Karnataka has spread to different parts of the state, after it originated from Udupi.

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