Animal feeder files complaint against Mumbai Metro One over alleged cruelty and illegal relocation of stray cats | Representational Image/ Pixabay
Mumbai: Mumbai Metro One Private Limited is facing heat from animal lovers after alleged mistreatment of animals on its premises. An animal feeder has filed a criminal complaint against the metro authority for relocating cats from the Saki Naka metro station.
On April 2, The Free Press Journal had reported that the animal feeders, who feed the stray animals living on the premises of the metro station on the Ghatkopar-Versova line, alleged that the metro staff has started harassing them for feeding the strays. The feeders also alleged that while the staff has been verbally abusing them, the animals are also subjected to cruelty, including forced relocation.
One of the feeders Sana Hameed, who had been feeding the cats at Saki Naka metro station for two years, had told The Free Press Journal that the metro staff had relocated a cat and her five newborn kittens which had been living on the premises of Saki Naka metro station.
On Monday, she filed a criminal complaint against the responsible officials of Mumbai Metro One for relocating the cats. The Andheri police have filed a non-cognisable complaint against unknown personnel of Mumbai Metro One under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
“It was mutually agreed that the metro authorities will provide feeding zones for the strays but then they relocated it. For me, the lives of the five innocent cats are important as they are not accustomed to live on the streets and might be starving somewhere in this scorching heat. If they wanted to relocate the cats, they could have handed them over to any animal shelter,” Hameed said.
After the incident, Pure Animal Lovers (PAL) Foundation organised a meeting with the metro authorities and warned legal action if they failed to comply with the animal welfare rules and do not stop harassing the animals as well as the feeders.
A senior security manager of Mumbai Metro One had told The Free Press Journal that they were planning to designate feeding zones within two days but there was no development on that front. On April 8, it had also urged the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to intervene and direct Mumbai Metro One to allow feeding stray animals living on the station premises.
Roshan Pathak, animal rights advisor with PAL Foundation, said, “According to the law, we cannot relocate the animals from a private or public property. Here the relocation was done during such a time when the cats were not even 15-days-old and were left on their own in this challenging weather. If they would have consulted us, we would have got them adopted or shifted them to foster care.”
