IANS
DEHRADUN, APRIL 20
Shaktimaan, an Uttarakhand Police horse that lost a leg in an attack by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator last month, died on Wednesday, days after it got a prosthetic limb, an official said.
Animal rights activists reacted sharply and asked the government to take action against the accused BJP leader, Ganesh Joshi.
Vets attending the 13-year-old animal said it had not responded to a prosthetic leg brought from the US. The horse died on Wednesday afternoon, they said.
It was at the police lines in Dehradun, where a group of policemen and an international animal rights activist from the US, Jamie Vaughan, were looking after it.
“Shaktiman lost its battle with life after a brave fight of 37 days. I salute its bravery and also Dehradun police,doctors and Jamie who looked after Shakti and wanted it to live,” filmmaker Vinod Kapri told IANS. Kapri recently made a documentary on life and the struggle of the horse.
“It’s not a death of a horse but a child in home. We treated Shaktimaan like our own child,” an emotional Kapri said.
PETA India chief executive Poorva Joshipura told IANS that the country should frame more stringent laws against animal assaulters so that peolple like Joshi refrain from being cruel to them. “We urge the government to act fast to ensure other animals are spared from cruelty and horrific deaths by strengthening the penalties for cruelty against animals.”
Joshipura said the horse “was essentially killed the day its leg was broken”. “Our equine veterinarian always warned his quality of life would be forever damaged and he may not live.”
Joshi, the legislator from Mussoorie, attacked and severely injured Shaktimaan during a BJP protest against the Harish Rawat government here on March 14.
Badly injured in the attack, Shaktiman’s leg had to be amputated later. A few days back, another US resident Tim Mahoney travelled all the way from Kentucky to Dehradun at his own expense to deliver a prosthetic limb for the injured horse.
BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi
reacts to Shaktiman’s death,
pleads not guilty
The BJP legislature, who is in the middle of the controversy around Shaktiman woes, expressed his condolences on Wednesday stating he feels sad about it.
Speaking to ANI, BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi said, “Very sad. I already said that I’m not at fault, if found guilty then cut my leg.”
Shaktiman, the horse of Uttarakhand Police, had a leg amputated after being allegedly assaulted by Joshi.
It had fallen down during the protest after BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi allegedly tried to pull it down.
Joshi was seen trying to hit the horse with a stick and was also accused of breaking its leg. He has, however, maintained his innocence claiming he was just trying to scare the animal.
Joshi, who was arrested on charges of attacking Shaktiman, was later granted bail on March 22 by a local court here.
