The Nattukotai Chettiar temple committee has denied abusing two bulls who were made to pull its silver chariot during the Thaipusam festival in Penang yesterday.

The temple's trustees claim they are being "targeted for reasons only known to the perpetrators" when the incident went viral on social media.

Admitting that it was a sheer mistake, temple committee senior trustee Dr A Narayanan said, "But I cannot help feeling that we are being targeted."

He said for the last leg of the journey en route to the temple in Waterfall Gardens, about 10 devotees embarked on the chariot when it passed along Jalan Utama.

"They went up just to take photographs, I am still wondering what happened, they just went up to be photographed and others filmed the whole scenario," Narayanan told Malaysiakini.

"When the chariot started moving, they could not come down, but they did not travel all along the road like this, it happened only when the chariot was about to approach the temple," he added.

Narayanan was responding to an avalanche of criticisms hurled at the temple committee for allegedly abusing the bulls when a video clip of the purported incident went viral on Tuesday night.

Penang Hindu Endowment Board chairperson cum Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy (photo) swiftly intervened and said the board has strict rules about cruelty towards animals during the festival.

Law lecturer Shamsher Singh Thind had also lodged a police report urging the abusers of the animals to be probed under the Animals Act 1953 and Animal Welfare Act 2015.

Narayanan said no one from the board has yet to contact the temple committee about the matter.

Asked if such incidents would be repeated, Narayanan firmly said, "No."

"We are looking into the incident and are taking steps to remedy it. We would not allow even for photographs to be taken, to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again in the future," Narayanan vowed.

"We are doing this according to tradition, with a lot of love and reverence, we are also animal lovers, we love animals just as much as anyone else in the world, and we would never hurt them.

"We are thankful to the bulls for this and we pray to them also, it is not true that we have been cruel to them, not at all," he added.

Narayanan also apologised for the delay in responding to the press, saying he is not a decision-maker and had to consult the committee members before issuing a statement.

He revealed that the state veterinary department has visited the temple to inspect the bulls.

"We showed them everything," he said.

Strict rules to prevent cruelty

Nevertheless, strict instructions have been given to those who handled the silver chariot to not abuse or act cruelly against the bulls.

Every year, about 14 bulls are used for this exercise, and they are replaced frequently along the route to avoid exhaustion in the animals, the doctor said.

"They are not the same pair of bulls for the entire journey. The same pair of bulls are never used for a long stretch of time as we do not want to tire them," he explained.

"Normally, we only allow six persons on the chariot, three on each side, so they can accept prayer plates and conduct services at the next stop," he explained.

"But in places where too many prayer plates are offered, we allow more than six to do service or else it would result in delays," he said.

"However, we always instruct that the additional people get down from the chariot before it starts moving," he added.

Narayanan said it was unfortunate that video clips were made viral as it gave a wrong impression of the situation.

He added that bulls will always struggle when they are being replaced with new ones, thus they appear to be "forced as they will not do it willingly."

He expressed regret that more than six people jumped on the chariot when the bulls were about to be replaced.

"We regret the incident and feel sorry about it. We will ensure such (an) incident does not repeat in the future," he said.

Asked if the chariots can be pulled by devotees or by four-wheel drives in the future, Narayanan replied in the negative.

"The silver chariot was not designed to be pulled by devotees, we would have to remodel it thoroughly for it to be pulled by devotees or (a) four-wheel drive."