Blue Cross of India wins case vs. bullock cart racing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

CHENNAI– Justice R. Banumathi of the Madurai Bench of the
Madras High Court in Chennai, India, on March 29 directed the Tamil
Nadu state government to prevent cruelty to animals in connection
with bullock cart racing and Indian-style bullfighting, which
masquerades as a way of “honoring” cattle.
“It is high time the government shouldered the responsibility
of taking up the cause of animals,” Banumathi said. “Equally, it
is high time the police shared responsibility in boldly declining
permission” for public events involving illegal cruelty, she added.
“Though animal fights are expressly banned under the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960,” Blue Cross of India
chief executive Chinny Krishna told ANIMAL PEOPLE, “these sad
spectacles go on year after year. Scores of spectators and animals
are badly injured and killed each year. The bulls are driven crazy
with fear, are force fed alcohol and ganja (opium), have their
tails bitten, and are then let loose before a drunken crowd to find
a person who can ‘tame the bull.’ The largest of these bullfights,”
Krishna said, “is organised by the Government of Tamil Nadu in
Alanganallur, near Madurai, in January each year.

“In 2003, Kishkinta Amusement Park in Chennai tried to
introduce it,” Krishna continued, “but the Blue Cross of India was
able to persuade the district collector of Kanchipuram to prevent it
by convincing the amusement park owners that it was illegal and
action would be taken under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.”
Other Indian humane societies have had less success in
bringing similar cases. In March 2005, for example, Justice
D.S.R. Varma of the High Court in Hyderabad allowed bullock cart
racing to proceed at Chodavaram in Visakhapatnam district, and
ordered police not to interfere.