Rural Heritage June/July 2026

discovered. Bloat, diarrhoea, colds, fevers and skin diseases are common health problems, among others (Deb et al., 2024). Despite Bangladesh’s long history with horses, the nation doesn’t have any purebred horses. (Deb et al., 2024). The horses predominantly belong to a nondescript indigenous type, loosely related to a group of Southeast Asian ponies with genetic similarities to Arabian and Persian horses that migrated from the West to India (Nozawa, 1988). Farmers are less concerned with specific coat colors. Common traits include a variety of colors, wherein chestnut and bay are predominant, with variations in leg and face markings. The horses are tethered during the day, mainly on fallow lands with sparse vegetation, and without the possibility of social contact with others, such as for mutual grooming. At night, they stay, the same as the cattle, in small shelters located near the farmer’s house. The shelters are open with bamboo, straw or polythene used as a roofing material. Regretfully, the treatment of the small horses is excessively and unnecessarily rough most of the time. This despite Bangladesh's Animal Welfare Act from 2019, which replaced the century-old Cruelty to Animals Act from 1920, originated from the British Empire. Animal welfare in general is not a significant point of discussion in Bangladesh, and the current state of animal welfare legislation leaves much room for improvement (Aziz et al., 2022).

The 1920 Act, which was reviewed during the Bangladesh Laws Revision and Declaration Act in 1973, had been barely functional. Indeed, in this review only the name Bangladesh was inserted to replace references to Pakistan and East Pakistan. This Act mainly addressed any person who overdrives, beats or otherwise ill-treats any animal. Every such offence was to be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to three months, or with both. Overloading an animal was also punishable with a fine or jail term (Leather Working Group, 2023). The new Act from 2019 tries to provide a balance between religious activities and the need to adhere to the international standards of animal welfare, especially for slaughter or sacrificial animals. It also gives authorized persons the power to visit and inspect any registered or unregistered farms within their jurisdiction and take appropriate action as per the Act or its subsequent rules. However, without a required frequency of such inspections, it is likely that the well-formulated provisions of the Act will remain largely ineffective (The Daily Star, 2019). Preventing cruelty is not just the government’s duty, it is everyone’s. But there is a lack of public awareness and education about the importance of animal welfare and the need to protect animals. Anyway, everyday life on the Chars is often different from the laws made in faraway Dhaka. If

Heavier goods are transported exclusively by horse carts on the Chars

June/July 2026

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