Animal Rahat meets with bullock owners and officials from sugar factories to appeal for the retirement of the animals and to assist with their replacement with trucks or tractors. The organization even makes arrangements with a tractor manufacturer to discount the cost of tractors in order to enable more factory workers to switch to non-animal haulage vehicles. This program has been a huge success, facilitating the retirement of nearly 100,000 bullocks from 26 sugar factories and replacing them with over 13,700 trucks and tractors. Several factories are now entirely bullock-free, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Animal Rahat’s team.
These gentle animals are treated like equipment, forced to work nonstop, and often pushed beyond their physical abilities and legal limits. They’re beaten with whips, even when the carts are stuck in ruts and they can no longer take another step. Their untreated wounds from crude devices like yoke spikes, whips, and wire nose ropes often become infected and cause intense pain and illness. The animals are sometimes literally worked to death.
Animal Rahat engages local police to punish lawbreaking bullock owners, and they’ve been out in force even more strongly this year. They were on the ground for the start of the season, issuing more summons, confiscating more illegal devices, and stopping overloaded carts in their tracks.
Animal Rahat teaches the importance of providing animals with regular grooming, clean water, nutritious meals, and more. The team’s presence at the factories also allows them to ensure better working conditions and remove torturous nose ropes and other crude devices that inflict pain.
With the help of trained volunteers, the group held informative meetings at sugar factories throughout Maharashtra for 94 participants in one month. It’s this type of outreach that leads to the rescue and retirement of many more bullocks, like Kishan and Jai. The pair was being forced to haul heavy carts while suffering from horrid hoof-and-mouth disease. Today, they are two healthy elders enjoying their senior years, demonstrating the value of every conversation the teams have with owners.