Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government warned that farmers who abandon their unproductive cattle would be booked under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, PTI reported.
On Monday, the state Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh said, "There is a difference between 'kasai and kisan' (butcher and farmer). We will care for the farmer, not the butcher. FIRs will be lodged under the prevention of cruelty to animals act against those who set their cattle free."
The minister was replying to a question raised by Samajwadi Party MLA Awadhesh Prasad during Question Hour in the state Assembly.
He had asked the government about the latter's plan to deal with the menace of the stray cattle and compensation to those individuals who were killed by them.
The minister continued, "These are not stray cattle but those set free. Everyone knows who set them free. When a cow gives milk, it is kept, and when it stops giving milk, it is set free." He said that 1,56,187 cowsheds were built till May, both in rural and urban areas and these shelter 8,38,015 cattle in total.