Friday, June 19, 2009

On horse death trail, hint of illegal races & a rearing ground

Thursday , Jun 18, 2009

Mumbai:

Two horses lying bleeding on the Western Express Highway after falling off the Andheri flyover on Sunday, an injured horse taken to BSPCA Hospital later Sunday evening, and then a long trail starting from an address listed at the hospital ended at an open wasteland behind Hotel Leela Kempinski on Sahar Road, Andheri. No investigation has been initiated into the bizarre death of the horses that were being used in a Borivali-to-Bandra illegal carriage race on Sunday, Newsline found that this could be the spot where the two horses lived before their painful death.

The trail began with a lead from the BSPCA (Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Hospital, which had an address for an injured horse brought in that evening and which died the following morning. The anonymous person who admitted the animal had listed a Marol address. However, when Newsline and a representative of the Plants and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) trawled through Marol Naka on Tuesday, it was clear that the address was fake.

A string of enquiries finally led to Dharam Sai Nagar, Anna Wadi, a slum settlement adjoining the 20-acre plot on Sahar Road. According to residents of Anna Wadi, the dead horses were looked after by a resident and were usually rented out for weddings, races and joyrides. One of the horses that died on Sunday was buried at the site, one resident claimed.

At the spot were two other horses tied to a tree, plus five others in a makeshift stable nearby. One of the animals was a white horse painted with black stripes to resemble a zebra.
About Pics : A white horse painted as a zebra on a plot in Andheri

On Wednesday, Sunish Subramaniam of PAWS posted written complaints, along with photographic evidence and the name of the alleged owner, to the Sahar police station, the Andheri police station and the police commissioner, asking for action against the owner for letting horses take part in illegal street races. The NGO specified the laws against using animals for public performance without permission.
“I am making this complaint. Now it is the responsibility of the police to begin investigations,” Subramanian said. He also demanded an investigation into whether a horse is buried at the site.

The two horses that fell off the flyover were allegedly part of a group of 10 to 12 carriages taking part in an illegal race. They lay on the road for 45 minutes till a group of people took them away. The blood was cleaned within minutes. There was no police intervention.

“Yeh sab race ke ghode hai,” a local said, adding that the owner had eight to nine such horses. He added cautiously that the owner lives in the same settlement.

“While it is not illegal to keep horses, cruelty to animal for the sake of performance is unconstitutional,” Subramanian said. “However, organisers of these races often bribe lower-rung policemen. In most cases, the higher authorities are unaware of these events.”

When Newsline visited the house of the alleged horse owner in the Anna Wadi slum, his wife said, “My husband is not in the city. You can talk to him when he returns... We have a few horses, but we don’t use them for racing. We don’t know of any horse that died.”

No comments: