Opposing any form of mistreatment of animals, the Winter 2021 issue of Compassionate Friend (CF) the Journal of Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC) takes up the cause of banning online sale of items that are used to harm animals and also the illegal practice of caging birds.
The magazine’s editorial "From my Desk” states, "In September 2021 BWC sent emails to the CEOs (chief executive officers) of Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, ShopClues, Bloon Toys, Desertcart, 24seven India, Ubuy India, Order2India, Cart2India, My Web Store Shopping, Eassymall, etc. requesting them to stop selling slingshots/catapults and air-guns/rifles and bullets. These are weapons used for hunting and can obviously cause injury and loss of lives to both wild and domesticated animals and birds, even to humans if targeted.
"(We) also alerted the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Director of the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce and industry followed by the Animal Welfare Board of India.
Image of caged birds for representational purposes
"Desertcart immediately replied: ‘Will raise that to our IT team to have it removed on the website.’ Ubuy’s reply was also greatly appreciated: ‘We already informed the concerned team to remove the products which are mentioned in the letter with immediate effect and will ensure that no seller will be allowed to sell such products on our website in the future.’
"The biggest offender Amazon responded that as per their policy they did not allow the sale and listing of such products, but in order to stop it asked BWC to send URLs (uniform resource locator) of those products that were objectionable! BWC sent them 17 pages full of URLs. The reply received from the counsel for Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd states among several other things that ‘Our client has, in accordance with its policy and obligations under law, reviewed the 142 URLs that you have shared vide your e-mail. You are hereby informed that on the basis of this review, our client has taken down a total of 21 products listed, out of the 142 identified and provided by you, which met the bar of restriction as per our client’s policy.”
An article in the issue titled "It is illegal to cage birds” by Khurshid Bhathena cited government notifications and court ruling on enforcing "the ban on caging birds.” In May 2011 the Gujarat High Court bemoaned "the manner in which the birds/animals are kept in the cages and looking to the pain suffered by the birds/animals, this court is of the opinion that the only order which can be passed in the interest of justice would be (to set) the birds/animals free in the open sky/air,” CF noted.
The Delhi High Court in its order dated May 15, 2015 as cited by CF stated "that running the trade of birds is in violation of the rights of the birds. They deserve sympathy… Birds have a fundamental right to fly and cannot be caged and will have to be set free.”
On May 31, 2019 "the Punjab and Haryana High Court accorded the status of ‘legal person or entity’ to animals granting them the ‘corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of living person’ adding that animals cannot be treated as ‘objects’ or ‘property’ and are ‘entitled to justice,’” stated the journal.
On July 22, 2021 the Animal Welfare Board of India sent its third advisory (the earlier two were of October 28, 2011 and May 6, 2013) to the chief secretary, principal chief conservator of forests and the director general of police of all states union territories requesting them all to ensure that the ban on caging birds was implemented and to take steps to wrap up illegal bird markets.
CF adds, "Remember the person who buys and flaunts a caged bird at home is as much responsible as the person who sells the poor bird, and before that, the person who has trapped or bred the bird.”
Even keeping birds in cages in peoples’ homes is illegal, CF editor and publisher Diana Ratnagar confirmed in response to a query from Parsiana. She, however, cautioned that if released "they will not survive.”