STREET ENTERTAINERS

	STREET ENTERTAINERS
	All over India you will find peddlers with animal shows–the man with the clothed monkeys or the nose-ringed bear or the basket with the snakes in it and the mongoose being dragged behind, the astrologer with the parakeet and cards, the man who fries live monitor lizards, the man with the owl, the bird trapper and seller, the elephant rider etc. All these are illegal. All of them carry on because you believe that these people are poor and you do not understand the implications of their illegal trade. Here are the FAQ’s that you should know the answer to:
	Where are the animals caught from?
	All the animals used by the street entertainers are caught from the wild, regardless of whatever the madaris may say. Many claim to have raised their animals in captivity from birth, which is untrue, as bears, mongoose, snakes and parakeets do not breed in captivity. The truth is, that animals are snatched when very young from their mothers or from the nests. The parakeets are caught from the hilly regions of northeast India, the owls from tropical rain forest regions like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Western Ghats and West Bengal. The monkeys, usually rhesus, macaque and langur, are found and caught by the madaris generally from the north Indian jungles. Two types of bears are used in such a profession-the Sloth and the Himalayan black bear. The Sloth bear is found in most of the dense jungles of India. The Himalayan black bear, that is most.commonly used by madaris, is captured from the wilds of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Himalayas and Assam. Snakes like cobra, King Cobras, pythons and Mongooses are found throughout India.
	How are the animals caught?
	Monkeys are caught using nets and other traps. Trappers prize young ones. Mothers are either scared away using pointed iron javelins and pitchforks or lured into another trap set by trappers. The young ones are snatched from their mother’s back or from the trees, if they are atop one. Sometimes the mother has to be seriously wounded or killed before trappers can get hold of its babies. Bears are trapped using a steel iron jaw trap that clasps and digs into the leg of the bear. The more the bear moves, the stronger the grip becomes. These jaws cut through the flesh to touch the bone. Until such time the trappers’ visit to check their traps, the bear undergoes unbearable pain. The bear is then bound and tossed into a cage before the jaw grip is released. In case of bear cubs, the mother is frightened off using fire torches and the bear cubs are snatched. Often the fierce mother bear is not prepared to part with her cubs at any cost. In such cases she is always killed. For every one bird that reaches the market place or madari about 100 birds die during trapping and another 100 or so while being transported. Birds are trapped by using sticky traps or sticks, snare nets, etc. Robbing.nests with fledglings is very common, especially in parakeets. Snakes are caught in their burrows either by pouring water in the holes or are smoked out or dug out. They are then put into earthen pots, where they are kept for weeks hanging from trees. The fangs of poisonous snakes are pulled out roughly by using a pierced iron. Inserting a red-hot needle destroys the venom glad permanently which means that the snake will now never be able to catch and digest its prey properly as venom is the snake’s digestive fluid. Since cobras are venomous, their fangs are brutally removed and their poison glands cut. Without their glands the snakes starve to death. Mongoose is caught from the wild when very young. They are dug out from the burrows and the mothers are scared away with the use of fire or pointed javelins. Owls are caught from their nests during the daytime when they are least active, being nocturnal. Like parakeets, owls too are caught from the nests or the cavities of the tree when it is just a fledgling. If not a fledgling they are caught using cruel means like sticky traps and nets.
	How are they trained?
	In order to force a wild animal to perform pain is induced. The complete process is part of a planned and calculated process of cruelty. Monkeys, who are born to swing freely from tree to tree are kept chained on the shortest possible leash to allow least movement. They are starved for days together in order to coax them into doing anything for a morsel of food. They are repeatedly beaten, kicked and hurt with live cigarette butts until they learn to do a trick or perform in the manner their trainer wants them to. Their reward for performing these acts is a few hours free of torture and beating. Often monkeys are kept together in pairs and witnessing the torture of the partner causes enormous stress and shock to the watcher. The mongoose is not fed anything till it learns the trick. Besides keeping it starved for hours it is beaten by the madari continuously. Out of fear and hunger it learns the trick. Mongooses are not ‘trained’ to fight snakes. These fierce little animals have a built-in instinct to attack other animals be it snake or bird or rodent. When attacking a snake, the mongoose provokes it to strike repeatedly, avoiding it by agile dodging; when the snake is exhausted the mongoose seizes its head in its jaws and crushes the skull. In an induced snake mongoose fight, the snake is always badly hurt as it is in a state of starvation and its fangs with which it could have defended itself , have been taken out. The snake will be made to do this again and again till it dies. Parakeets are starved till they work for the incentive which is grain .The madari gives the bird an “incentive”.only once it picks up the card. The bird out of hunger and not out of its so-called sixth sense picks up the card! It is a myth that parakeets can predict the future by picking up a card. By choosing a card it only follows an instinctive behaviour pattern. They feed in the wild by a similar action of choosing food. The bear is one animal that is afraid of none in the jungle. Such is the status and power of this great and beautiful animal in the wild. One can imagine the kind of brutality needed to reduce it to a frightened creature helplessly being lead on a leash all the time. When the baby bear is captured, a thick iron nail is driven into its nose and made to exit from the other end creating a hole which never stops bleeding. An iron ring is passed through this gap and further connected to a leash. Such is the pain caused on pulling at the leash that the bear blindly follows the trainer lest the leash be pulled. A superficial cut is made on the side of the neck and the collar put round it to hide it. This wound will always remain fresh so that the animal is in agony all the time. The bear is starved, tortured by waving fire torches in front of his face. He is made to stand on his hind feet by putting him onto hot coals so that he stands up. From time to time-single hair are pulled out of his flesh so that they can be sold separately. His teeth are pulled out so that he cannot harm the madari. If the madari can find a buyer for the claws these are pulled out as well and sold as charms. Snakes perhaps suffer the worst of the lot for they do not even have the option of performing well and avoidingtorture. For them, it is always torture, regardless of other factors. The snake is a wild animal, which has no idea whatsoever of what is happening around. His entire body is curled up in a small basket forcibly. Every time the basket opens the snake is allowed to raise only its head. Snakes are deaf . Each time the snake is pulled out of his box, he feels danger and fear. He sees the charmer sway along with his flute and apprehending danger from the stick that is being pointed at him in the guise of a flute the snake simply follows it. Snake charmers remove the fangs from the cobras, sometimes even excising the fang-bearing jawbone. This normally results in infections, which kills the snake. Some charmers sew the snake’s mouth shut. Some charmers do not feed their snakes, but simply go out and catch more when their snakes die . The normal life span of such snakes is 3-6 weeks. Owls are used by the madaris not to perform tricks or to dance like the monkey, mongoose, bear and parakeet. They are simply made to sit on a pedestal in the heat with their foot tied to a string . Owls are blind in daylight and develop visual and behavioural problems. Often the feet of the owl are cut off and sold for good luck charms and tantric practices.
	What foods are they fed?
	In the jungle these animals get a balanced diet simply because of the variety of foods they eat. In captivity ,however it is rare that the Madari actually feeds the animals at all. They usually survive on the bits and pieces thrown by the audience. The food is usually ‘junk’ like popcorn, old chapattis, stale bread, and ‘channas’. Fresh fruits are rarely given because of the price. At times snakes are fed milk ( by the audience) for which they have no enzymes of digestion. Mongooses are fed fat and offal by the madari.
	How are they kept?
	It is unheard of for such animals to have any housing. As a matter of fact, where is the question of the animals having housing when even the owners have none ? Snakes are kept for weeks on end coiled in side small baskets in which they can barely move. Bears are nose ringed and usually tied under railway crossings where the sound of trains drives them mad. This apparently keeps them docile. Monkeys are kept tied up night and day on a short chain around the neck/waist. As this is against their natural disposition, they suffer from behavioural problems. They exhibit stress and are agonized, paranoid and start attacking human beings .This leads to more beating. Parakeets are kept in small cages where they cannot even sit up straight let alone stretch their wings. Their wings are broken or their feathers cut to prevent them from flying again. Like monkeys, mongooses are kept tied up on a short chain around its neck. They hardly get space even to move about. Owls are also tied up with a rope around their feet.Their wings are clipped so that they do not fly away. If not tied to a rope for long hours, they are kept in cages that are too small for their size.
	How long do they live?
	Snakes rarely live for more than 3-6 weeks in the hands of the madari. They die of starvation, dehydration and wounds incurred by being coiled in the basket, hit by the madari or wounded by the mongoose, pneumonia from being fed milk. Bears lose 10-20 years of their life due to overwork, disease and malnutrition. Those that live for a few years are then taken on trip to Nepal by madaris supposedly for showing tricks but in actual fact , once they cross the border they are killed for their gall bladders and other parts.The Chinese claims that bear bile are amongst the most effective medicine for many diseases. They have made farms where bears are kept standing in cages and 2 spikes are spiked into their stomach and the bile that comes out is collected in jars. The whole process is unbearably painful and is repeated every day till the bear rips out his own organs out of pain. Often they have their gall bladders ripped out while they are alive and are allowed to die a slow and painful death. Bear paws are used for some potions and are quite valuable. Similarly bear skin, teeth, bones are all of commercial value. Indian madaris have been known to send their bears to Nepal to such farms. Monkeys too die fast due to the pollution of the city and the inappropriateness of their food. Many of them have tuberculosis which they get from and give to the madaris who spread it further. Those who survive the cruelty of its trainer are sold to various laboratories illegally for experiments. Owls being nocturnal, cannot survive for long if exposed to daylight. The light blinds them temporarily. They become prone to heatstroke. Birds have a delicate respiratory system, which because of the city’s pollution and other harmful gasses emitted by vehicles leads to their death. Birds, survive for a year or so in captivity. Mongoose, which usually lives for 7-8 years, lives for not more than 3-4 years in the hands of the madari. In fact no wild creature can survive for long in captivity. They cannot adapt to our ways, despite our best efforts. They belong to the nature and should remain there so.
	What is the effect on India’s ecology?
	All animals are part of a chain and it is important for us to view the long term consequences of removing them from their natural habitat. Snakes keep rats under control. Without them, the rat population would explode and there will be no grains for humans to eat. They are eaten by raptors and peacocks who lose an important source of food. Monkeys are responsible for spreading a large variety of seeds in the jungle. In their absence, certain types of trees stop growing leading to less biodiversity and a scarcity of forest cover. This means lack of rainfall and droughts. Similarly bears keep white ants and termites in check. Without them white ants and termites would overrun forests leaving few trees unharmed. Bears, like monkeys are one of the important factors for pollination. The feces of the bears help in germination of the plants. Their refuse contains fruits and seeds. Parakeets , like all birds help in the germination of plants. Owls keep rodents under control and are important maintainers of the food chain in old forests. .
	What does the Constitution say and what does it mean?
	Article 51-A of the Fundamental Duties states that “it shall be the duty of every citizen of India- (g) To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.” Compassion means “pity aroused by the distress of others and the desire to help them” which means that a citizen must discharge his fundamental duty by ensuring that an animal is not subject to pain and suffering and if the possession is illegal or unauthorized , it is part of his duty to take steps as indicated below.
	What are the laws that protect these animals?
	a.) Pursuant to the Notification under Section 22 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, training and exhibition of bears, monkeys, tigers, lions and panthers is prohibited. Consequently it would be part of your duty to detain that animal and the person having custody of it and taking both to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint/FIR for the violation of the notification. The police thereafter is expected to produce the animal before the concerned magistrate on two grounds i) violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and ii) if the person in custody of the animal does not have an ownership certificate , the charge should be framed under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act. b.) Local Municipal Corporation Act: the exhibitor of any performing animal will require a license from the local Municipal Corporation before such acts on the street can be even considered to be legal. This applies to all animals and has to be had in addition to (a) above. C.) Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972:Section 39(3) makes it mandatory for a person owning a wild animal to get a certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden. Without such a certificate it would be illegal for him to be in possession of any wild animal. The punishment varies with each schedule. For Scheduled I and Part II of Scheduled 2 animals the punishment is upto six years in jail and a fine of Rs 50000. In case of the other Schedules the punishment is 3 years in jail and a fine of Rs 25,000. However , since the Wildlife Protection Act passed in 1972 states that any animal listed in the Schedules I and Part 2 of Schedule II cannot be bought, sold, kept or displayed wholly or in part, none of these animals can be held by madaris unless they are with him before 1972. No animal of 1972 or previous to that year is alive today with madaris. Therefore no licence , no matter who has issued it, is valid. In fact the person issuing the licence can be prosecuted under the Wildlife Protection Act , even if he is a wildlife officer.All the animals stated are in Schedule 1 and in Part 2 of Schedule II. Neither is the licence valid for “ offspring” of the original animal as , under the Act these had to be surrendered at birth. d.) Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Section 11. This act prohibits. Any unnecessary pain or suffering to animals Transportation of animals in anyway that will cause pain and suffering Keeping animals in receptacles which do not allow them reasonable movement Keeping animals tied for long periods of time using very short chains and use of heavy chains Using animals which are ill or injured Overdriving, overloading, kicking, beating, etc of animals. If evidence of any of these cruelties is found, the owner of the performing animal shall be penalized under this act. The act under Section 29 gives power to the court to deprive a person convicted of possession of the said animal, imprisonment of 3 months and a fine. e.) Indian Penal Code-You can use the IPC if you perceive the street entertainer to be a “public nuisance”. This is defined under Section 268 of the IPC, as “a person is guilty of a public nuisance that does any act or is guilty of an illegal omission, which causes any annoyance to the people in general who develop or occupy property in the vicinity.” If the offence involves large crowds it constitutes a public nuisance. f.) Beggary Act
	What should you do if you see a madari?
	If you see a madari you can demand to see if he has a license from the local municipal corporation, certificate under the Performing Animals Rules, 1976,and certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden .If he does not have these three you can immediately file an FIR with the nearest police station as his possession and/or performance of the animal is illegal. If he has a document from the Chief Wildlife Warden of another state , this is invalid in the state he is in. If he does have the necessary papers you can file a case under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. If there are a number of such animal performers in your locality you could try the following methods to control the situation: Write to or meet the SP/DM/Wildlife Warden in your area and inform them of the presence of madaris. Make press releases, and take the media to the places where these animals are being exhibited. Give copies of the relevant laws to the local police and try to organize awareness programs for the police, people of the forest department. Keep the phone number of the local wildlife warden and when you see a madari, hold him and then get the wildlife warden to confiscate the animal. Inform the local public as why they should not support such cruelty to animals. Use advertisements in cinema, theatres or radio, etc. You can put up slides at your local theatre telling people that such street entertainment is illegal. Give them examples. Inform them also that all animal products as claimed by the madaris (like amulets made from snakes) are illegal and just an eyewash to dupe the people. Give contact numbers to immediately report cases when they see such an act. If the bird is a single one , simply confiscate it. The madari knows he is in the wrong. He is not going to argue. As far as possible make sure that all street entertainers convicted should be deprived of their animals, or else the person will merely move the operation away from your area to another. You should not allow the madaris to be a part of birthday parties, melas or any other social gathering. You should not pay the madari. This will discourage him to carry on with such a profession.
	Contact addresses:
	Local Wildlife Warden Contact your local SPCA or any known animal welfare group Be prepared to meet resistance with local police. Many a times there is a nexus between the madaris and the police officers. Be prepared to move the court in case the police are uncooperative. Patrol your local markets at least 3 times a week in a group. If you see such an act, threaten the madari with the police and inform the police or the wild life officials immediately. Find the one person in your local corporation or police station that is honestly making a difference. This may be difficult but will pay off in the long run. Offer a reward to anyone giving you information about it. Give your phone number, email address and fax. Give an award to the police officers that have assisted or initiated the stopping of such entertainment. You should condemn the act in by writing letter to the editor the newspapers, magazines that write about the feats of the madaris.
	What should you do with the animals?
	Monkey Restraint: Madaris attach chains, ropes or wire to their animals, either around the throat or waist. Should the Madari desert the animal, restraining the simian with the lead is importantbut caution should be taken to avoid an attack. Most bites that have been inflicted on the rescuer are to the legs thereby making the use of knee–high gumboots imperative. Coaxing the animal into a strong burlap sack is advised which is then moved into the holding cage or ambulance, etc. A number of animals voluntarily crawl into the offered sack with no resistance. Incarcerating the animals for a short time in burlap sacks has the advantage of easily anaesthetizing the primate for examination and removal of restraining ropes and chains, providing first aid, etc Feed: Feed them with seeds (sunflower, jowar, peanuts, germinated grams, etc) and fresh corn on the cob. Fruit and vegetables can be also fed. Bears Restraint: The only manual restraint possible with bears that have been abandoned is to follow the techniques used by their handlers. Firmly grip the stick and rope attached to the metal ring pierced into the nose of the animal and walk it like a dog into the transport cage. Ensure that the stick is not twisted as this causes extreme pain to the animals and is the trick used to make the bear rear up and ‘dance’. All performing bears have been rendered toothless but care must be taken to avoid the powerful claws in the event of an attack. Feed: Bears as they have been rendered toothless avoid their natural foods- tubers. A diet of rice, ragi, chapattis, eggs, bananas and other soft fruit is prescribed Mongoose Restraint: All mongooses usually have rope leashes attached around their waists with a peg at the other end. The rope is attached to the clasp of the filthy box that these animals are held in. If the animal, no doubt still attached to its restraining rope, escapes, the safest way of capture, though traumatic, is the way the snake-charmers handle them. The rope/string is raised, lifting the animal off the ground and the tail is pulled stretching the animal full length so that it cannot turn and bite. The animal can then be deposited into a thick burlap sack, which is tied with the same restraining rope (mongooses can easily dig through the sack using their powerful claws). A more gentle method is to corner the animal and then offer the box in which it had been incarcerated. The panicked animal is only too happy to oblige by hiding in the familiar dank, dark confines of the box. Feed: Mongooses in the wild consume any animal they can over-power. They are also scavengers feeding on offal and kitchen waste. You can feed them with eggs, whole live mouse/rat, chicken, mince, papaya & banana. Snakes Restraint: Their human captors incarcerate snakes in small filthy wooden boxes and cane baskets. If abandoned by the snake charmers the animals should be taken to a person skilled at handling snakes before opening the containers. As has happened on many an occasion, snakes have been thrown at the rescuer before the charmer has fled the scene. In such a scenario, it is imperative that the rescuer safely ‘bags’ the snake. A large cloth bag/s of a weave that is not too tight (casement) is an essential part of the rescuers paraphernalia as is a grab-stick and a hook especially for the novice snake handler. In the case of non-venomous colubrid snakes such as rat snakes (dhamans) gentle restraint with both hands supporting the snake mid-body and lower is sufficient. These snakes bite only if the restraint is painful. Allow the animal to move from hand to hand. In the case of large pythons the method employed is to grab the snake behind the head with a sack over the restraining hand. The sack is then ‘inverted’ over the coils of the animal before the head is released. Cobras and other venomous taxa, whether defanged or fanged deserve respect when handling. Using a hook to lift the snake into the bag is by far the safest method. Once the coil is hooked it is possible to gently immobilize the animal along the length of the snake hook by holding its tail. A method that works very well is to attach a dark cloth bag to the rim of a gutless tennis racket. Snakes readily enter the bag in a bid to escape. Grab sticks are dangerous for the snake if applied inappropriately. The last thing one would want is for the animal to suffer more at the hands of the rescuer. Grab sticks should be applied at the thickest part of the snakes’ body. Further the jaws of the grab stick should be covered with soft rubber to render them less harmful to the snakes’ delicate skin. The snake has to be ‘bagged’ as quickly as possible to reduce stress and physical trauma. Pinning the snake by the head is detrimental to the snakes’ well being. The soft malleable bones of the skull would be irreparably damaged resulting in the death of the animal in a few weeks. Small non-venomous snakes (<30”) can be covered with a soft cloth, restrained and lifted. Feed: Most of the snakes that are rescued are usually not fed or hydrated for protracted periods of time, sometimes even six months or more. In lieu of this, rehydration fluids PO, SC and IP are imperative for atleast a month before feeding can be considered. Force-feeding dead rodents and offering of live toads is the recommended mode. Water snakes are fed live fish only. Smaller species are particularly challenging as natural foods include ant’s eggs, arachnids, worms, and a host of other invertebrates. Parakeets & Owls Restraint: Use a soft cloth to cover the entire bird in the case of parakeets. The thumb and index finger of the restraining hand is used to gently grip the head of the bird. In the case of owls a soft cloth is used to cover the bird taking care to avoid the talons. Feed: Parakeets should be fed a primary diet of sunflower seeds, jowar, peanuts and corn. Fruits and selected vegetables including green chilies ensure intake of a variety of essentially required nutrients. Owls need to be fed only whole prey – rat or mice. Feeding only minced meat creates problems such as intestinal and crop impaction resulting in the death of the bird.
	How will the madari live if his animals are taken away?
	Making a living on the basis of suffering of another living creature is morally wrong and in this case legally wrong too. To allow them to continue to exploit and torture animals just because “they have to make a living” is morally indefensible. It is equivalent to saying let the poor thief steal,, because he has to “make a living”. If we ban such activities the owners will necessarily find other ways to live. After the ban of ivory carving in India, the artisans did not sit back and they took up the carving of bones or soapstones. Shahtoosh weavers moved to pashmina. But alternatives will only appear when the present path is closed. Most of the madaris pretend that they are poor. In actual fact each madari earns over Rs 200 - Rs 1000 a day. The man bringing the animal to the street is never the owner. The hunter/owner usually owns 25-30 bears and rents them out like taxis to these people at a minimum of Rs 150 a day. Which is why the person showing you the bear never feeds it or takes care of it. The next day he will take another bear from the general pool and if one dies, the owner merely hunts down another victim. The government is willing to rehabilitate these people but only once they have quit all their cruel professions. Further, poverty can never be an excuse for cruelty. If this were true, then every criminal would be justified in his acts as it was due to his poverty.
	Is the madari a conventional criminal?
	Almost all madaris have now turned criminal due to the lack of business in street entertainment. These days other than a few places where foreign tourists visit, snake charmers hardly engage in street exhibitions. Their basic living is now dependent on crime. They accost strangers at traffic lights and scare them with snakes and threaten to throw them on the person. They warn the person of the venom, or scare them with curses if they do not pay homage to the snake. Another new tactic is to ask the victim to merely place a high currency note in the charmers palm so he may touch the snake with it and then return the note back to the victim. They claim they are not interested in the money. The moment the victim does that, they replace the actual note with a piece of paper and in a flash, crumple it up and place it back to the victims pocket telling him not to look at it immediately and pretend they have returned the currency with blessings. AN EXPERIENCE OF PFA, MYSORE The Mysore PFA saw four men with snake baskets, sacks and wooden boxes. One man was displaying a mongoose. The animal was on a short leash that was pegged to the ground. A snake was being taken out, presumably to set up a ‘fight’ between the two natural enemies. The PFA team contacted the Forest Department and jointly raided these iterant animal bawkers. Two of the snake charmers escaped. The remaining two had between them 15 snakes, 3 parakeets and a mongoose. All the animals were rushed to the wildlife rehabilitation centre run by PFA, Bangalore. It was past midnight by the time they reached the centre. But the animal were tended to immediately. Their condition was pathetic. The mongoose had been caged in a tiny wooden box. Its cornea was punctured and it was blind. Its prognosis of recovery was extremely poor. The parakeets had been rendered flightless, as their primary feathers had been clipped. Their tails were bent and broken, owing to the small holding facility these birds had been incarcerated in. They had also mutilated themselves, a feature common amongst captive animals due to boredom. The birds will require rehabilitation in excess of three months, but their prognosis is good. Of the snakes, the checkered keelback is suffering from respiratory distress. Its nasal shield is destroyed due to the constant abrasion against the snake charmers basket in an effort to escape. Prognosis is fair. So is it for the red sand boa that presently is malnourished and weak. The 6 rat snakes are also emaciated and since they were held in sub-optimal and unhygienic conditions, their parasite load is heavy. For one month they will be under aggressive fluid therapy and anti-parasite treatment before repatriation into the wild can be considered. All of the 7 cobras have been deranged and are suffering from severe infection of their oral cavities. Two of them have even been devenomed, a crude process whereby the snake charmer piths out their venom glands. Their prognosis is not so good ad all of them will be under protracted therapy in an effort to regenerate their fangs.