The widely-circulated video of a labrador brutally beaten with sticks and then hung by a fishing hook created massive outrage on social media Kerala high court moved to action.
In the light of the recent monstrous actions of three individuals, Kerala high court judges have initiated suo moto public interest litigation for the protection of animal rights and issue a string of instructions. The judges also named the case after the dog, Bruno.
Suo Moto cases are instances wherein the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India can use their inherent powers to initiate a hearing by taking cognizance of any matter on its own, without anybody filing any appeal or writ petition.
“We feel this will be a fitting tribute to the hapless dog that succumbed to the acts of human cruelty and disturbed by which we had initiated these proceedings,” a division bench of justices Jayasankaran Nambiar and P Gopinath said about its decision to rename the petition as “In Re: Bruno (Suo moto proceedings initiated by the high court in the matter of executive and legislative inaction of the state government in the matter of protection of animal rights)”.
Bruno was killed on Adimalathura beach on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram by three individuals who attacked the labrador resting by the boat owned by Sunil, one of the three culprits and started thrashing it. They hit the dog with a thick stick, then hung it on the boat with a fishing hook and continued raining blows till it seemed dead and threw the body into the sea.
According to the police the accused has had spats with the dog owner Christuraj in the past, at least on one occasion over the dog urinating near their vessel. Local reports said the police did not initially act on owner’s complaint. Later the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of People for Animals intervened and a FIR was registered.
