Animal welfare concept in India: perception and reality?

Professor Ashok Rathore

<sup>Foundation Director,
Animal Welfare and Veterinary Science Institute,
Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University,
Allahabad. Uttar Pradesh,
India 211-007

(akrathore@msn.com)</sup>

• Table 1 - Trends in the use of cereal as animal feed (calculated from data in FAO 2000)
• References
  
  

In India the concept of Animal Welfare is quite different from the concept of Animal Husbandry. There is paucity of precise information on the animal welfare activities being carried out in practice as compared to policy documents prepared by governmental and non-governmental organizations. During the past 10 years Animal Welfare Societies have been established to take up a number of issues e.g. planning birth control of stray dogs; awareness of programs about animal welfare laws: pertaining to transport, slaughter, housing, care of wounded, sick animals, protection of wildlife, monitoring of zoos and circuses.

The livestock population of India is huge and animals as a whole play an important role in the agricultural economy even though they often receive inadequate nourishment. At the same time India faces trade liberalization and rapid diversification of diet towards high-value agriculture. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) supports the assertion that investment in agricultural R. & D. has powerful impacts on growth and poverty reduction. Slaughter of cattle in India is prohibited in all but few states. The slaughter of buffaloes is not supposed to be as offensive to the religious beliefs, and buffaloes are slaughtered for meat. Population dynamics indicate that buffaloes will produce enough milk and meat to emerge as a future economic entity and chances of its becoming a “sacred buffalo” are remote.

As cows are sacred for Hindus, Indian cities have a stray animals problem that dwarfs the problems caused by cats, dog or even rats. New Delhi has over 20,000 stray cows and the city has its very own cowboys to find, stalk and catch them before delivering them to ‘Cowshala’ (gaushala i.e. cow refuge), a municipal cow-yard on the outskirts of Delhi. But who would be a cowboy in India? The labyrinthine bureaucracy and out right corruption means that most of the cows end up back on the streets again in a few days, they are milked for profit and the crazy merry go round starts again. In fact the only ones who seem to care are the veterinarians and carers at Delhi’s Animal Care Center. Veterinarians influence how animals are treated at local, national and international levels, so it is vital that their training includes a good background in animal welfare. The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) reviewed the positions of the world’s leading veterinary associations on five important animal welfare issues. The positions of these veterinary associations, to implement these five issues appear to lag behind.

Formal veterinary education is one of the factors likely to be responsible for this discrepancy. In 2003 WSPA and the University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science, U.K. developed the concept of “Animal Welfare syllabus”. In India Veterinary students are not necessary animal lovers. A veterinary doctor who finished his study will receive a government posting in one of the government veterinary hospitals to serve the large animals, the farmers and breeders of meat-animals. Recently under the pressure of the animal welfare movement, a number of select veterinary colleges take the recommendations of the Animal Welfare Board seriously. They are also involved in protest against cow slaughter, paradoxically over a billion un-owned cows, stray dogs, cats and other species of stray animals are running around in every Indian cities and villages, creating traffic hazards and polluting the roads with their dung and urine. These stray cattle are eating plastics and are dying unnatural death. Veterinarians have found up to 5 kg of plastics in post-mortems of these cattle. Chicken batteries are number one on the cruelty list, and the transport of animals to slaughterhouses is breaking the rules and is of unheard cruelty. Draught and natural calamities add to the selling of animals for slaughter.

The Animal Welfare & Veterinary Science Institute at Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University at Allahabad, U.P. India recognizes the importance of veterinary education, research and development (Rathore 2007b) and animal welfare and resource management and will be a power-house for animal welfare and economic progress, where rural communities are dependent on local food and livestock production. It will be advancing national interest through poverty reduction and the sustainable livestock development. Over 64% of population of India lives in rural sector and is mainly dependent on land and animals. Animals play an important role as a source of food, fiber and other by products.

The potential of livestock to reduce poverty is enormous. Livestock contribute to food and nutritional security. Animal products such as meat and milk are sources of high-quality protein and certain vitamins and minerals help promote general health and alleviate poor growth and poor mental development. The welfare and husbandry of animal species is dependent on its relationship with human, which is governed by socio-economic, political, religion, and cultural factors, whereas its relationship to the land is governed by geographical and climatic conditions. Livestock farming is an age-old tradition for millions of Indian rural households. Livestock plays important role in the production of food and other purposeful diversified produce and on an average contributes between 10% and 50% of gross domestic product (GDP) in tropical developing countries. Over 60% of world’s poor depends on livestock for their livelihood. In the last three decades, there has been increased interest in milk production by dairy animals (cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats). The population of India as at 0:00 hours on 1st March 2001 stood at 1,027,015,247 persons (1.027 billion). With this, India became only the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark. India’s population is estimated to be 1,129,866,154 in July 2007.

Globally the population grows by 77 million people every year. India adds almost the total population of Australia (about 20 million) every year. In 1901 India counted some seventy-seven persons per square kilometer; in 1981 there were 216 persons per square kilometer. By 1991 there were 267 persons per square kilometer—up almost 25 percent from the 1981 population density. There is a population increase in Asia and at the same time the Asian economy is growing by 7-10 per cent. Every year about 30 million Chinese move from being a poor peasant to an urban dweller. This move means change in diet, with urban dwellers eating three times more protein. This increased demand for animal protein brings an even higher demand for grain. Basically one kg of animal protein uses between two - eight times the volumes of grain to produce. One liter of milk needs two kg, while pork and poultry needs 1.5 kg to 2 kg of grain. At the same time the Chinese population wants more grain (refer table 1 below), their agricultural land is going under tar and cement, India is facing the same problem.

Table 1

Trends in the use of cereal as animal feed (calculated from data in FAO 2000)
Total cereal used as animal feed (Million metric tons)
REGION:	1983	1993	1997	2020 (**)
China	45	81	96	226
India	2	3	2	4
South East Asia	6	12	15	28
Latin America	40	55	58	101
Sub-Saharan Africa	2	3	4	8
Developing world	128	194	235	444
Developed world	465	442	425	511
WORLD	592	636	660	954

(** The 2020 projections are from the July 2002 version of the IMPACT model)

Agriculture is the major sector in the economy and employs a large proportion of the population. For farmers, livestock are often one of their most important assets, second only to land. There is an urgent need for technology-transfer. Let us explore some new delivery models (appropriate, need driven technology, which can be maintained at village level) to increase capacity such as public private partner-ships, involving stakeholders, especially women, decentralized delivery, distance learning and computerized vocational training (Rathore, 2007b). The primary focus is the need to increase efficiency of animal production and marketing at local level, with active community involvement, not just funding.

For most ordinary Indians, pockets of darkness still exist in the way government and bureaucracy functions. While on one hand, they are changing India’s economic profile; on the other hand they are also grappling with deep-rooted barriers like poverty, illiteracy and corruption. In an address to the Calcutta University Convocation in 1905, Lord Curzon invoked the phrase “Mare’s Nest”, a euphemism for a pure figment of imagination, something so pre-posterous as to be unthinkable. I know of no country, declared Lord Curzon bluntly, “where mare’s nests are more prolific than here in India. India seems to be overwhelmed by the mare’s nest syndrome”.

Poverty causes pronounced deprivation in human well being encompassing material deprivation, poor health, vulnerability to shocks and changes, and having little or no control over key decisions. These internationally recognized “Five Freedom Principles” provide valuable guidance for animal welfare. An estimated 219.6 million head of cattle, representing about 15 per cent of the world’s total compete for scarce feed resources. These five freedom principles may equally apply for the welfare of poor and undernourished people:

    1. Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
    2. Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort due to environment
    3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
    4. Freedom to express normal behavior
    5. Freedom from fear and distress

India, the world’s largest democracy, faces huge problems in its rural sector. The greatest number of poor and undernourished, over 250 million is found in rural India. One billion people in the world cannot read or write, 1.2-billion lack access to safe drinking water, 35% of world’s poor live in India. However, poor people should not be regarded as burdensome to society, rather, they represent an economic opportunity needs to be tapped. India’s poverty ratio is disgracefully 28%. Because despite spending enormous sums, the government has failed dismally to provide every village with the five basics of growth: all weather roads, electricity, telecom, functioning schools and functioning health centers. Farm animals in India contribute about one-third of the total GDP. To meet the demand of ever increasing human population, broad framework of cattle and buffalo breeding policy recommended for the country since mid-sixties envisaged selective breeding of indigenous breeds in their breeding tracts and use of such improved breeds for upgrading the non-descript stock. While the States accepted the framework, appropriate implementation of the same through field level programs could not be done. Lack of interest in promoting Breed Organization/Societies and related farmers’ bodies contributed to gradual deterioration of indigenous breeds. In the developing worlds, there exists strains or geographically separated populations with potential for exploitation because of desirable traits such as disease resistance (Rathore, 2007), adaptation to poor quality feed or heat tolerance (Orskov, 2007). Any selection or conservation of such strains or breeds will require characterization to elucidate the unique genetic resources that are available.

Majority of owners having indigenous breeds were not willing to accept A.I., which was the major government intervention for breed improvement. Eventually, the availability of good quality bulls needed for natural mating in the breeding tracts became scarce, leading to further deterioration of indigenous breeds in these tracts. Numerous programs have been initiated to improve cattle production through the introduction of temperate genotype. These programs were often not successful. A long-term strategy for the continued development of dairying would be to select cattle that can adapt and be reasonably productive in a wide range of environmental conditions. Keeping in view the current concerns for sustainability, maintaining environment and biodiversity and conservation of energy, there is an urgent need for re-thinking on the development and use of indigenous cattle breeds for milk and draft/traction. Lack of indigenous cattle has created “catch 22” situation where people are unable to secure enough cows of indigenous breeds. Similarly it is very hard to find good quality indigenous bulls to breed cows to upgrade and obtain young stock. At Animal Welfare & Veterinary Science Institute, we plan to breed and upgrade cows with good quality Indigenous bulls’ germplasm. We have adopted popular slogan “Bring-back the Hump (Bos indicus)”.

In the modern era of industrialization the livestock species are under threat from various sources particularly with extensive use of artificial insemination, intensification of agriculture and indiscriminate crossbreeding of local breeds with less adaptable exotic germplasm (Rathore 2007a). In addition the demand is increasing for animal products with increase of population and more due to increased awareness. Gaushala, at Kanpur in India has made numerous innovative products from cow dung and urine, demonstrating that these stray cattle can be beneficial, as well as can be important source for in-situ conservation of indigenous breeds of livestock. These can also be used for progeny testing large number of bulls. In developing countries, a major problem is how to get new ideas and technology know-how to poor people. Trying to implement new ideas and technologies has been expensive and traditional extension systems have failed to help rural poor (Rathore, 2007b).

It is generally agreed that payoffs to agricultural education could be higher with a stronger research-extension interface. The main issue is how to improve and or change the education system? How do we educate the educators, to match the future need? We must play a greater role in solving the problem that rural India faces. The weakness of current system can be attributed to: First, adaptive research and technology transfer is considered to be less challenging; few scientists and educators are attracted to it. Second, scientists working in technology assessment and transfer are disadvantaged because performance-evaluation criteria tend to emphasize the number of research publications. Third, most scientists lack the skills to assess farmers’ field-research needs’ to design appropriate technologies. They also lack operating expenses for on-farm research/extension. Livestock is one such opportunity, driven by increasing incomes in developing countries, the demand for livestock products- meat, eggs and dairy products – is increasing at a far greater rate than the demand for staple crops. However, in India many of the poor farmers are land less, and many of these landless poor are women- women constitute about 70% of the poorest of the poor.

A major key to managing change is proper diagnosis of problems and situations, keeping in mind that the performance of the whole is not the sum of the individual parts. But is a sequence of the relationship between parts and the problems cannot be solved separately, since they are interdependent. Basically farming/agriculture is about human interference with nature in such a way that animal and plant products can be harvested. Yet this interference can cause serious problems to the environment unless it is done carefully. There are institutions, governmental as well as non-governmental organizations and universities that can address policy and there are those that address technology. However, this requires a targeted effort. It will not happen by default. Many of the issues are international, are complex and require a wide range of skills indicating that collaboration must transcend institutional and national boundaries. However, in a society that has increasingly forced people (mostly politicians) to look after themselves, the main question is “how do you create a community that is going to have to make sacrifices on behalf of others that demands giving up things”. A former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, once said only 15paisa of every rupee spent as a subsidy reach needy people. This statistic is unlikely to have changed. The old joke about India is that “anything one says about India, the opposite is also true”. We are a land of paradoxes, and amongst those paradoxes is that so many of us speak about India as great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ our people, and yet India is more than the sum of its contradictions. It may be a country rife with despair and disrepair, but it nonetheless moved a Moghul Emperor to claim, “If on earth there be paradise of bliss, it is this”.

British Premier Gordon Brown said (in Delhi, January 2008) “in Glasgow University, where I was a lecturer before ‘descending into politics’, stood for objectivity, rationality, impartiality and honest pursuit of truth”; after a brief pause, he remarked “these are the qualities you have to leave behind when you go into politics”. When Indira Gandhi used to say in the mid 1980s “corruption is a global phenomenon”. We used to laugh at her observation. But things since have gone worse, both in India and the West. In this context Brown’s remark should set everyone thinking.

Scientifically based animal welfare standards are currently being developed by the OIE (‘OIE Guiding Principles’) for animal welfare that emphasizes – ‘”there is a critical relationship between animal health and animal welfare, and improvement in farm animals can often improve productivity and hence lead to economic benefit”. We should keep in mind the possible repercussion of technological innovations in improvement of livestock, pest control and animal foodstuff that requires ethical reflection on what it means to augment production, quality and safety of the livestock products. Incorporating internationally recognized “five freedoms principles” which will be greatly beneficial to the field workers, livestock holders and will bring about total metamorphosis of livestock, dairy and fisheries sectors, without compromising animal welfare and ethics.

References

Orskov, E.R. (2007) Tropical animal nutrition with emphasis on animal adaptation and products. In International Tropical Animal Nutrition Conference. Held in October 4-7, 2007 at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India. Volume: 1. Pp 1-5.

Rathore, A.K. (2007). Endemic and emerging animal diseases of economic importance and their control and action plan to alleviate rural poverty for the poor goats and sheep keepers in India. In: National Conference on Emerging Diseases of Small Ruminants and their Control under W.T.O. Regime held in Makhdoom, Farrah, Mathura, U.P. India, February 3-5, 2007 PI 20, Pp 14.

Rathore, A.K. (2007a). Animal genetic resources: Conservation and improvement. In: Proceedings of National Symposium on Role of Animal Genetic Resources in Rural Livelihood Security, held at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, February 8-9, 2007, Pp 89-100.

Rathore, A.K. (2007b). Applying Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Research, Extension and Knowledge Management. In Proceedings of National Workshop on Information & Communication Technology Application in Library Automation. Held at AAI-DU Allahabad, November 3rd 2007.