A horse owner has approached a court in Kerala accusing the People for Animals (PFA) of taking away his horse's foal, while the PFA alleges that the foetus got aborted.
The row is over Sabinaz, a female horse aged around ten, that was being used by Tamil Nadu native Kannan for offering rides to tourists at Kariyathumpara tourist spot on the suburbs of Kozhikode.
The PFA Kozhikode unit took possession of the horse with police intervention in February last year, accusing the owner of cruelty by making the pregnant horse carry out rides. Kannan later approached a local court and after a prolonged legal fight he recently got an order in his favour to get back the horse.
On January 14, PFA authorities handed over the horse to him from a shelter in the district. Kannan later alleged that its baby was screaming while the the mother horse was handed over to him and the PFA authorities refused to give the foal to him despite repeated pleas. He also alleges that even as PFA authorities took away the mother horse from him, accusing him of not taking care of it, the horse was still suffering from various ailments. Advocate Sumin S Nedungadan had filed a petition for Kannan seeking release of Sabinaz's baby from the PFA.
PFA authorities denied the allegations by producing a certificate issued by a veterinary surgeon of Kozhikode district veterinary centre stating that the horse was found to have aborted an approximately eight-month-old foetus on March 3 last year. PFA authorities also showed pictures of the foetus.
Jinsha, treasurer of PFA-Kozhikode, told DH that it was another horse in the shelter that screamed while Sabinaz was being taken away. She also said that the horse was under treatment and a surgery was also scheduled to be performed. She also alleged that Kannan abandoned the horse at the tourist spot for months during the Covid lockdown. During that time it, conceived by mating with a male horse owned by another person in the locality.
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