#BeefBan? Centre notifies Rules banning sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets

In a move that will significantly affect the meat industry in India, the central government’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified new Rules, which ban the sale of cattle for the purpose of slaughter in animal markets..Rule 22 of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017, framed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, place certain specific restrictions on the sale of cattle in these markets..Rule 22(b) requires a person bringing cattle to the market to submit a written declaration stating that the animal has not been brought to the market for slaughter. Further, Rule 22(d) requires an Animal Market Monitoring Committee to obtain a certificate from the buyer of an animal that it has been bought for agricultural purposes. Rule 22(e) prevents the purchaser from selling the animal for slaughter..The Rules also have an exhaustive definition of ‘animal market’:.““animal market” means a market place or sale-yard or any other premises or place to which animals are brought from other places and exposed for sale or auction and includes any lairage adjoining a market or a slaughterhouse and used in connection with it and any place adjoining a market used as a parking area by visitors to the market for parking vehicles and includes animal fair and cattle pound where animals are offered or displayed for sale or auction.”.Under a different set of Rules, also notified on May 23, even abandoned cattle and those seized under the Act and put up for adoption cannot be sold for slaughter. Rule 9 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Care and Maintenance of Case Property Animals) Rules, 2017 also provides that draught and pack animals that are put up for adoption cannot be sold for slaughter..The Rules largely look to ensure that cruelty to animals is prevented and that animal markets are hygienic. A number of practices including disfigurement of animals, branding, castration, forcing animals to perform unnatural acts such as dancing, putting ornaments on animals etc. are prohibited under the Rules. It also prohibits infliction of pain on animals, tying them up, penning and caging, and provides that they should be adequately fed, watered and giving proper bedding and light. However, the Centre seems to have equated animal cruelty to slaughter..Though the Rules do not expressly ban cattle slaughter, it makes things very difficult for farmers who want to sell their cattle for slaughter. Moreover, the rules also imply that even buffaloes cannot be sold for slaughter in these markets. There is no legislation preventing the slaughter of buffaloes..How these Rules will affect states which do not already have laws pertaining to slaughter of cattle remains to be seen..Read the Rules: