News Analysis India

Tag: PETA India

  • PETA says unhygienic exotic meat markets in Northeast pose risk of diseases during Covid pandemic

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Thursday said unhygienic killing and selling of meats including exotic meats in Northeast is risking disease transmission amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Among other meats, barking deer, wild boars, frogs, mice and dogs are being sold, some of them live in various markets, PETA said.

    Releasing a new video evidence on the occasion of the World Vegan Month (November), the PETA said the video reveals filthy conditions risking disease transmission and rampant violations of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

    “Filthy, illegal meat markets torture animals and act as petri dishes. PETA India is calling on officials to do a sweep and shut them down, for everyone’s sake,” PETA India Advocacy Associate Pradeep Ranjan Doley Barman said in a statement.

    ​ALSO READ | Meghalaya environment minister to get PETA award for ‘vegan leather’ initiative

    PETA claimed that at Nute Bazaar in Manipur, flesh of barking deer, wild boars and frogs were illegally sold and buyers and sellers touched the charred animal parts with their bare hands.

    “In Senapati Bazaar, an illegally hunted deer’s severed head was passed around. In markets in Nagaland, live eels, mice, frogs and birds were openly sold and workers handled dead animals without wearing gloves,” it added.

    Live dogs were also illegally sold for their meat with puppies being caged and older dogs’ mouths being tied, the release claimed.

    At Itanagar market in Arunachal Pradesh, meat of Mithun — the state animal — was openly sold.

    In all markets, blood, sinew and innards were everywhere, it added.

    PETA India said it has sent letters to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change regarding these markets, urging them to take action against them.

    “COVID-19 is largely believed by experts to have stemmed or spread from a live-animal meat market and SARS, swine flu, and bird flu have also been linked to the practice of confining and killing animals for food,” it added.

  • Meghalaya environment minister to get PETA award for ‘vegan leather’ initiative

    By PTI

    SHILLONG: PETA India has decided to confer on Meghalaya Environment Minister James P K Sangma the Progressive Business Concept Award for his plans to produce ‘vegan leather’ in the northeastern state, officials said on Wednesday.

    People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) volunteers in Meghalaya will soon hand over the award to the minister, they said.

    Sangma had recently announced in Hyderabad that the Meghalaya government plans to produce leather using pineapples found abundantly in the hilly state.

    He had said the administration is also planning to open a climate change museum and introduce the subject in school curricula.

    “In recognition of his plans to help local farmers by encouraging vegan pineapple-leather production — a move that will also protect animals and the environment, PETA India has decided to confer upon him the Progressive Business Concept Award,” PETA India Senior Campaigns Coordinator Radhika Suryavanshi said.

    The minister has rightly identified the climate crisis as a “defining challenge of our times” and he’s already taking steps to address one of the biggest culprits — animal agriculture, she said.

    “PETA India looks forward to seeing Meghalaya create new opportunities for farmers while helping save the planet and animals’ lives through a thriving pineapple-leather industry,” the PETA office-bearer said.

    PETA believes that animal agriculture — which includes animals slaughter for clothing — is responsible for nearly a fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and this was also corroborated by the United Nations, Suryavanshi said.

    “To keep the skins of cows, buffaloes, and other animals used for leather from rotting, tanneries use a variety of caustic, toxic chemicals, which pollute waterways. One of the most widely used chemicals in the tanning process is chromium, which can cause cancer in workers exposed to it,” she added.

    The export of footwear, leather and leather products from India in 2020-21 was to the tune of USD 3.68 billion.

  • PETA India asks Amul to switch to producing vegan milk

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has asked Amul to make a decision to switch to producing vegan milk.

    In a letter to Amul Managing Director R S Sodhi, PETA said the dairy cooperative society should get benefitted from the booming vegan food and milk market.

    “We would again like to encourage Amul to benefit from the booming vegan food and milk market, instead of wasting resources trying to fight the demand for plant-based products that is only growing. Other companies are responding to market changes, and Amul can too,” PETA India said.

    Sodhi, while replying to a tweet by Ashwini Mahajan, national co-convener of Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said, “Don’t you know dairy farmers are mostly landless.

    Your designs may kill their only source of livelihood.

    Mind it milk is in our faith, our traditions, our taste, our food habits an easy and always available source of nutrition.

    Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative society managed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.