Sonalli Seygall: Children should be taught about animal cruelty in schools

Over the past few years, Sonalli Seygall has worked with multiple NGOs dedicated towards animal welfare and rescue. On World Elephant Day today, the actor wishes that laws related to animal cruelty become stringent so that the perpetrators don’t get away easily.

“I’ve personally called out culprits and taken them to the police. But they’ve all gotten away by paying a fine of just ₹50. It’s heart-breaking! Even if anyone tries to bring about a change, they aren’t paid heed to because human cruelty assumes a greater importance. But I believe animal and human cruelty is at par,” the actor shares.

Last month, a 60-year-old blind elephant named Nina who was abused in Uttar Pradesh created headlines. Following the incident, a few Bollywood actors came together in support of a petition to prevent abuse against blind elephants. Talking about it, Seygall says, “One of my friends from the industry said that unless there’s uproar, nothing will change. And that’s a sad fact. Do we really need celebrity influence for justice? But maybe that’s the only notice to draw attention of the public”.

A year back, a pregnant elephant was brutally killed after a local in in Malappuram, Kerala, fed her a pineapple stuffed with crackers. The Jai Mummy Di (2020) actor asserts that increased urbanisation is also a reason: “Many people felt that it wasn’t a big deal because it happened by accident. But we’ve to be more careful. When we encourage such barbaric acts, we give culprits the licence to commit bigger crimes in the future.”

Seygall is confident that the solution to this is introducing curriculums on animal cruelty at schools. “If children are taught about the consequences of animal cruelty, the by-product would be that cases of animal cruelty might reduce but it will make them compassionate human beings,” she ends.