People For Animals suggests provisions to effect pony registration

IMPHAL, Aug 23
People for Animal (PFA) Manipur has lauded the initiative taken up by Veterinary and Animal Husband Department to register all ponies and gave suggestions to be considered in effecting the registration process.
A press release issued by PFA Manipur today said that the association has been urging all concerned to register Manipur ponies with the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) as per the Performing Animals  (Registration) Rules 2001.
Notably, the Government has put in efforts to protect the endangered species by registering them under Manipur Pony Conservation and Development Policy 2016. However, PFA questioned if the process would bring any tangible changes in promoting the Manipur ponies as simple registration alone cannot produce any positive result.
Suggesting various provisions that may be included in the registration policy, PFA said that authority concerned  should not violate the "Performing Animal (Registration) Rules" in the registration process.
Each pony should be given a unique tag (ID) generated from the registration and upload the details in public domain-website (concerned) so that individual/ authority concerned can avail the details easily, PFA suggested.
The unique tag will also enable authorities concerned to find and locate the owner in case of emergency, it said stating that ponies 'are injured and killed in accidents frequently.'
The registration form should have details of the animals such as skills or trade (Polo and other activities/sports) and information on routine vaccination. Owners who have more than 10 ponies should be made to declare that they have certified veterinary doctors looking after the ponies. Without the declaration, they should not be allowed to register their ponies, PFA said.
Submission of fitness certificate from certified veterinary doctors should be made compulsory before ponies are engaged in Polo, Lai Haraoba etc, it added.
Unregistered ponies should be banned from participating in Polo, Lai Haraoba and other sports/activities, PFA suggested.