A recent incident of allegedly killing eight newborn puppies by stuffing them in a sack and drowning them in a pond by a woman in Pabna has once again exposed a harsh reality about the treatment of animals in Bangladesh. Our society has a longstanding problem with cruelty to animals but our legal system is woefully ineffective to address it. The Pabna incident sparked a wave of outrage with people from all walks of life sharply reacting to it. The woman was immediately arrested but was later freed on bail, which is legally permissible in the law she was sued under. Similar previous incidents suggest we all will forget the matter with the passage of time and no strict punishment would be meted out to an offender that may act as a deterrent to the cruelty to the voiceless creatures.
Animal rights activists say incidents of cruelty to animals are underreported in Bangladesh. Still we come across new items on the culling of dogs, beating of puppies to death, and trapping and stoning of wild animals. In many areas, cruelty has been normalised on the grounds of so-called nuisance control or sheer apathy. News on such cruelty spark shock but it rarely sustains long enough to bring a lasting change. We react, condemn, push for punishment, then forget and move on, allowing the cycle to continue and the cruelty recur.
Cruelty to animals usually took place at the hand of uneducated or marginalised individuals. But what makes the Papna incident more disturbing is that the accused does not belong to that section of people. She is the wife of an upazila-level government officer and resides in official quarters. This is a reminder that cruelty to animals is not confined to poverty and lack of education. It is embedded within the social fabric, including among those who should be more aware and more responsible. In our society, animals, especially stray dogs and cats, are widely viewed as problematic and unworthy of compassion. Many people do not understand that animals, like humans, feel pain, fear, and distress.
The most significant reason for the recurrence of cruelty to animals is perhaps the weakness of our legal system. The primary law for animal protection and welfare was the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1920, a colonial-era law, until 2019 when the Animal Welfare Act was enacted with the objective of modernising protection. The statute provides for imprisonment up to six months and/or a fine of Tk 10,000 for animal cruelty with higher penalties for repeat offences or severer cruelty. However, its enforcement remains sporadic and inconsistent. Most law enforcers still treat animal cruelty as a trivial matter and cases are seldom investigated seriously. Another disturbing reality is that many officers are unaware that a law exists against animal cruelty. Our experience suggests that even the strongest laws are ineffective without public awareness.
Now what we urgently need is enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act with the members of law enforcement agencies undergoing training on handling cruelty cases. Public awareness campaigns should be conducted and humane education introduced in school curricula, teaching children empathy, responsibility, and respect for animals to change the situation. We must acknowledge that a society that allows cruelty to animals, excuses it, or forgets it will continue to reproduce violence in many forms.
We all are demanding justice for the puppies killed in Pabna. But mere justice for them will mean little if we fail to prevent recurrence of such incidents. Real justice lies in strengthening laws and unwavering enforcement of those, and above all, changing hearts. Only then can we
claim that we have learned something
from this tragedy.
rahmansrdk@gmail.com
