Thursday, November 10, 2016

Jumbo brought to garland minister rescued

CHENNAI: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officials on Saturday seized an elephant from Kamaraj hall in Teynampet on charges of the animal being starved. Suma, 56, was ostensibly brought to garland Union human resource development minister Prakash Javdekar but was rescued before his arrival.

She was later taken to the SPCA premises in Vepery. SPCA secretary T Thyagarajan told TOI the reason mentioned in the transit permit issued by the wildlife authorities was that the cow elephant was brought for a Ganesh puja. But she was forced to remain in the hall without food or water for a long time.

The animal was also made to bless people coming to the hall for a fee that the mahout collected, Thyagarajan said, adding that this was a violation of the rules. The mahout also did not have the mandated performing animal certificate from the Animal Welfare Board of India and Suma did not have the microchip embedded by wildlife authorities in all elephants in captivity in the state, Thyagarajan said.

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