For Immediate Release:
5 November 2024
Contact:
Hiraj Laljani; HirajL@petaindia.org
Shaurya Agrawal; ShauryaA@petaindia.org
Hyderabad – In response to an appeal from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, the Telangana Forest Department has taken a significant step by directing all field officers to strictly enforce a prohibition on the caging and confinement of aerial birds. The advisory has been issued in alignment with the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and guidance from the central government body, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).
A copy of the appeal from PETA India, and a copy of the advisory from the Telangana Forest Department are available upon request.
In its appeal, PETA India requested that the state take immediate steps to implement the AWBI’s advisories against the caging of aerial birds issued in 2011, 2013, and 2021. Telangana is the latest to issue directives against this cruel practice. The governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Haryana, and Sikkim have issued similar circulars directing action on and imposing prohibitions on the caging of aerial birds.
“PETA India applauds the Telangana government for taking an important step against the cruel confinement of birds,” says PETA India Advocacy Associate Shaurya Agrawal. “Birds are born to fly – it is fundamental for their well-being. Yet they are deprived of this natural birthright when they are captured or bred in captivity and locked inside cages.”
This directive aligns with multiple court rulings that emphasise birds’ rights to freedom. In a 2011 judgment, the Gujarat High Court observed that birds have a fundamental right to live freely in the open sky and maintained that they should not be caged. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court echoed this sentiment in 2015, acknowledging the fundamental right of birds to fly, and ruled that caging birds for business or otherwise should not be permitted.
Caged birds suffer immensely. They experience depression, stress, and loneliness. Many become so despondent that they relentlessly scream or pluck out their feathers until they are bleeding and raw.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview that denies animals protection from human-caused harm.
PETA India invites everyone to support the protection of birds by acknowledging their natural needs and opposing their confinement. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
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