The District & Sessions Court of Surajpur in Greater Noida denied custody of 3 dogs to its owners while hearing a case of animal cruelty.
Observing that if handed back to the owners the pets could be subjected to barbarism & cruelty again, the Judicial Magistrate Shashank Gupta said the dogs will continue to live under the care of a city-based NGO.
In Aug, a 30-year-old Nigerian who lived in a rented apartment in a Greater Noida highrise with his wife was arrested & a case was registered against him under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. This happened following a viral video that purportedly showed the man thrashing his brown American Pitbull Terrier in his apartment’s balcony.
Police took his dogs – a male pitbull, a female pitbull & a Labrador pup – & gave them to People For Animal (PFA) to care. While the suspect was later granted bail, his wife approached the Court in Sept seeking custody of the 3 dogs.
“It has been observed that if the custody of animals is given back to the applicant then there is possibility of animals being subjected to barbarism & cruelty. The animals are being given proper care at the NGO. Thus the court denied the appeal of handing the custody back,” read the Judgement dated Nov 24, a copy of which was made available on Friday & seen by the news agency.
Kaveri Rana, president, PFA- Gautam Budh Nagar said that “It’s one of the rare case & historic judgement by Honourable Surajpur court denying custody to the abusive family. Precedent has been set against animal cruelty".
Vishal Gautam, PFA’s legal counsellor said that in most of such cases the animals are often handed back.
Vishal Gautam said that “In my knowledge, there had been only one case in the state where the custody of a cattle was taken from its abusive owner. This is the first such case in Uttar Pradesh where the custody of dogs had been denied to the abusive owner on base of animal cruelty".
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