§ 13. Captain MURRAYasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that animals in India are still, in many circumstances and on many occasions, subjected to unnecessary suffering and cruelty; and whether any action has been taken by the Government of India as a result of the reports on the working of the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1800, received from the local governments in 1911?
§ Mr. C. ROBERTSThe Government of India on a careful survey of the question of preventing cruelty to animals in India are satisfied that local governments are generally alive to its necessities, and that further legislation is not needed. The difficulty in dealing successfully with the evil does not arise from the defects of the law, but from the difficulty of enforcing the law in view of a certain apathy of public opinion regarding some forms of inhumanity. The Secretary of State has just received representations as to unnecessary cruelty to draught animals in Calcutta, and is asking the Government of India to consider whether the law cannot be more effectively enforced.