Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Any police office above the rank of a constable or any person authorized by the State Government in this behalf who finds any animal so diseased or so severally injured or in such a physical condition that in his opinion it cannot be removed without cruelty, may, if the owner is absent or refuses his consent to the destruction of the animal, forth with summon the veterinary officer in charge of the area in which the animal is found, and if the veterinary officer certifies that the animal is mortally injured or so severally injured or in such a physical condition that it would be cruel to keep it alive, the police officer or the person authorized, as the case may be, may, after obtaining orders from a magistrate, destroy the animal injured or cause it to be destroyed; * (in such manner as may be prescribed)