Plea in Madras HC to euthanize ailing temple elephant

An animal lover has moved the Madras High Court seeking to euthanize a temple elephant which has developed bed sores due to constant lying down for over a month due to serious complication in of one of its feet.

When the petition came up for hearing, a bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose posted it to Monday with a direction to the counsel for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, which administers various temples, to get instructions from the government.
Petitioner S Muralidharan, who stated himself to be an avid animal lover, submitted the elephant of Suguvaeswarar temple in Salem had been suffering for a long time due to serious painful disease condition of her left foreleg, which cannot be medically or surgically treated or cured.

Rajeswari was also affected by painful abscesses on her right hip and elbow, he said. Due to this, the elephant was standing using only three legs resulting in arthritis.
More than a month ago, the elephant went down and since then been lying on the floor on one side. This led to the development of bed sores which had become severe and started decaying, the petitioner said. Several veterinarians had attended to the elephant and in the process they indulged in absurd methods of trying to make her stand up by lifting her with an earth mover, he claimed.
On one such occasion, the elephant was dropped from the earth mover breaking her tusk and limb, he submitted.

Despite all this, the elephant had been subjected to various "terrible" treatments till date, the petitioner said adding keeping it alive at this condition was a violation of section13 (3) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Hence, he prayed the court to direct authorities to end the life of the elephant by euthanasia and relieve her of the pain.