The Animal Welfare Coalition of Sri Lanka presented a pledge on Animal Welfare to all political parties in Sri Lanka and urged them to promote animal welfare in the country. The pledge was submitted in the wake of growing number of incidents of animal cruelty issues reported in Sri Lanka.
Vositha Wijenayake
The Animal Welfare Coalition urged the parliamentarians to pass and implement the bill on animal welfare, prevent animal cruelty in Sri Lanka and collaborate with organisations working on animal welfare.
Animal Welfare Coalition Convenor Vositha Wijenayake called for collective support from all political parties and said, “We believe that a pledge can establish a higher animal welfare standard in the country. The public is largely aware of animal welfare as a crucial issue and we urge all political groups to firmly engage and take a progressive stand in safeguarding the welfare of animals in Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka has numerous animal protection organisations working on rabies vaccination, sheltering stray dogs, elephant protection, mitigating the human elephant conflict and caring for domestic animals.
The Animal Welfare Coalition becomes an important initiative as it promotes animal welfare, creates awareness on cruelty to animals, ensures the enactment of the animal welfare bill and upon having done so, to conduct trainings for practitioners of law and effective implementation of law.
Dr. Ganga de Silva, Director Operations of Blue Paw Trust said, “Animal abuse is an indicator of serious problems and animal cruelty incidents should not be ignored. It has been proved that those who commit acts of animal cruelty have led to other crimes like violence against people, property crimes and drug or disorderly conduct offences. It is imperative that Sri Lanka has a robust animal welfare legislation.”
President of Sathva Mithra, Sagarika Rajakarunanayake said, “It is time we focus on the protection and the welfare of animals in the country. This is a cause that needs to be prioritised, and the politicians need to act in order to ensure that cruelty to animals is prevented. This is crucial as compassion to all beings is part of our culture.”
Paddy / August 13, 2015
At last a voice for the voiceless! If the government could commit a certain amount every month to the various animal shelters like Animal SOS, Embark etc which are struggling to find donors, then over the next ten years or so our stray population would be down to 10 or 20% since they are sterilized and will not be breeding. What an ideal world that would be.
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AVB / August 13, 2015
Country is still struggling to understand two leg human animal welfare… If you learn to respect all two leg animals irrespective of their social status, fair skin colour, rich look, connections…, then it is not hard to extent that love and respect to 4 leg animal… There is long way to go… But I guess desexing street dogs is a good thing…
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Rajash / August 13, 2015
Perhaps that will also be challenged by the racist as a back door wefare for Tamils who are treated like animals in the camps and in the NE
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NIRMALA n / August 13, 2015
Rajash
Mahinda respond to your thoughts when he becomes the greatest prime minister of Sri Lanka.
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Rajash / August 13, 2015
From a corrupt President to Greatest Prime Minister!
Dream on
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NIRMALA n / August 13, 2015
Get it right. He was a honest President surrounded by corrupt minions.
He has now learnt the lesson. The corrupt minions including you will not any space when he becomes Prime Minister.
You are the worst animal I have come across in these columns.
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Rajash / August 14, 2015
NIRMALA n “You are the worst animal I have come across in these columns”
Oh NIRMALA n thanks for the compliments.
….you are the worst human being I have ever come across, not just in these columns, but ever, a human being worse than a worst animal..
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NIRMALA n / August 14, 2015
Rajash
You must be put down in the dogs compound with a sodium injection. You are a stray dog not even good for a meal.
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Ranil Wijeyesekera / August 13, 2015
These principals are needed badly. Karma means we have to treat ann9imals well as they could be our relations. In chjristianity man was given dominion over annimals to care for them.
Lat us come to a conses in this regard. Let us not distirt nature by homones, gentics and medicines to change life times and other methods.
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MirakRajBanda / August 13, 2015
What about the Human Welfare? I know the write might be annoyed or even angry with my comments.
We have plenty of stray dogs and the nights are belong to them. You have to restrict your movements at night or the risks are high that you might end up a rabid dog bite.
Troupe of macaque monkeys are rules the day and the devastations they cause are unimaginable and financial loss for farmers are also immense.
Vietnam has only 200 elephants left in wild, Thailand has 1000 and India has 20,000 but in Sri Lanka, we have staggering 6,000 wild elephants roaming in the wild, paddy fields, cities, roads or even your backyards.
I’m not encouraging a cull but the sterilization is inevitable if you want to avoid Animal-Human conflicts.
Welfare Bill is just another rubbish idea!!!!!!!
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Raj / August 13, 2015
Typical stupid remark that can be expected from the ignorant mass of this so called Buddhist nation. The control of stray animals (problem caused by abandoned pets) & wild animals invading villages & towns in search for food because their natural habitat had been taken over by man are just the reasons for needing such a Bill.
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LSD / August 13, 2015
You are right humans need to be steralised. :-)
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Ben Hurling / August 13, 2015
MirakRajBanda,
“sterilization is inevitable”.
We should have started by sterilizing links higher up in your own pedigree. Sri Lanka would have been spared of your “ground-breaking thinking” then.
Cheers!
PS: There is an enormous amount of cruelty against animals inside Sri Lanka. A Welfare Bill is a must.
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maalumiris / August 13, 2015
@MirakRajBanda
You are a shameful human being.
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Taraki / August 13, 2015
How about banning animal sacrifices as a start. This savage practice has no place in modern society. Some Muslims and Hindus may complain but that is just too bad.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/stunning-photos-of-the-worlds-largest-animal-sacrifice-2014-12?r=US&IR=T
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/6645024/Worlds-biggest-animal-sacrifice-held-in-Nepal.html
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cristo / August 13, 2015
what on earth is the point of animal sacrifices …if there is a god ,why on earth would the deity be pleased that one animal is sacrificing another animal in his name as a form of adoration and worship. The Mayan civilisation if you can call it that ,sacrificed humans to their gods ..but in todays society we should be able to show devotion without wasteful and cruel barbarous acts in the name of god..All lives are precious and should be respected not abused
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maalumiris / August 13, 2015
If you are truly devoted to the Almighty, it’s probably better to show your devotion in a way that makes YOU feel it. I submit that despatching some poor creature is definitely NOT going to make you feel anything.
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Su siri / August 13, 2015
In an era wherein humans seem to have lost all regard for human lives, when money and power override human values, it will be a long time before the society awakens to act to prevent animal cruelty.
When yellow robed thugs immerse in politics , self gain and disrespect the compassionate philosophy of Buddhism, in addition to instigating intolerance and breed hate towards other humans , can we expect kindness to animals?
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maalumiris / August 14, 2015
@Su siri
Does it mean we should not even try ??
A human has a voice to protest ill-treatment, express pain and suffering. And there are laws to protect humans. Animals have no such recourse.
Sinhala Buddhists (loudly) claim to be enlightened Should they not act enlightened also ?. Some faiths also exhort that “thou shall not kill”, it does not say “Thou shall not kill humans but killing everything else is OK”
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