Horrific Act in India: Woman and Friends Burn Cat Over Bad Luck Belief

A woman and her friends in the northern Indian city of Moradabad have been charged under the Wildlife Protection Act for allegedly capturing and burning alive a feral cat after it crossed their path.

The incident came to light after Delhi’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau received a complaint about a video being shared online.

Police named the suspect by a single name, Priya, and stated that she resided in Laluwala village in Uttar Pradesh. They stated that the woman and her friends recorded the act and posted the video on a social networking site.

Priya, said to be in her early 30s, and her group of friends encountered the cat that was crossing their way in Moradabad's Bhojpur area and caught and killed it, police officials said on Tuesday. There is a common superstition in India that if a cat crosses one's path, it is a sign of bad luck.

People are seen beating the animal in the video, pouring petrol on it, and burning it.

Police added that Priya and a number of other suspected were booked under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which prescribes three years of imprisonment and a considerable fine for such acts of animal cruelty.

We tracked down Priya after checking the registration number of the bike visible in the video, Moradabad divisional forest officer Suraj Kumar informed The Times of India.

India has seen numerous cases of animal abuse that resulted in police action.

A pregnant wild elephant was killed in the state of Kerala in the south of India in 2020 when she consumed a pineapple that was seeded with a firecracker that detonated. The wild elephant charged into a nearby river after the explosion and remained there for several hours, apparently seeking relief for her badly damaged mouth and tongue in the cold water.