Victories, Celebrity Support Mount as Animal Rights Group Makes Inroads
For Immediate Release:
10 January 2003
Contact:
Anuradha Sawhney 9820 122602; E-Mail: AnuradhaS@PETA.org
Mumbai — On 12 January 2003, the India office of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will turn 3 years old. In just that short span, PETA India has gone from relative obscurity to being featured on the covers and pages of many of the country’s best-known magazines and newspapers, thanks in no small measure to support from the organisation’s many activists and celebrity friends. PETA India’s very first campaign featured models John Abraham and Aditi Govitrikar who posed in costumes designed by Hemant Trevedi made entirely from vegetables for a PETA ad urging animal-loving and health-conscious people alike to kick the meat habit. John later received a coveted award from PETA for going above and beyond the call of duty in behalf of animals.
When PETA India conducted a star-studded online poll, more than 15,000 Web surfers participated, casting their votes for Amitabh Bachchan and Esha Deol as the ‘Hottest Vegetarians Alive’. Since it was launched, PETA India’s Web site, www.PETAIndia.com, has received an average of 8,000 hits per month, a strong indication of how eager the compassionate people of India are to improve the plight of animals. PETA India has distributed more than 40,000 posters called ‘How to Win an Argument With a Meat-Eater’ and regularly answers more than 250 e-mails and letters per week, requesting information about everything from finding fashionable substitutes for leather to using cruelty-free cosmetics to dumping dairy products for good. PETA Asia representative Jason Baker writes a regular column for the Delhi Times, as well as for Indiatimes.com.
PETA India’s first victory was a memorable one, when a baby crane
named Happy, who had been at the Prince of Wales Zoo in Lucknow, was
released back into the wild to find—and enjoy—her rightful
place in nature. Since then, PETA India has been instrumental in the
rescues of scores of other animals, including lions, tigers, geese,
turtles, goats, parrots, munias and monkeys, now living in peace and
good health at rehabilitation centres and sanctuaries throughout the
country.
In one particular landmark action, 37 abused monkeys and two goats were seized from the National Institute of Virology in Pune, following PETA India’s discovery of atrocious conditions at the laboratory. The animals had been caged in filth and searing heat—some for more than a decade—and crippled by untreated illnesses and injuries. Some of the primates were missing fingers or teeth, some were disfigured and paralysed and many were found whirling in endless circles from being driven insane by confinement to small, barren cages.
Thanks to PETA’s undercover investigation of the abusive and deadly conditions under which cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep are illegally transported to slaughter by the leather industry, an anti-corruption bureau in Orissa conducted a ‘sting’ operation and caught corrupt police officials taking heavy bribes from cattle transport lorry drivers to look the other way. PETA India’s boycott of the Indian leather industry has signed on Adidas, Gucci, Gap and 40 more of the world’s largest leather-goods retailers, costing the Indian leather industry more than 32.6 crore rupees in lost contracts.
PETA India’s list of celebrity supporters reads longer than a Karan Johar film’s credits: Aishwarya Rai wrote a heartfelt letter to help save Baixinha, an endangered black rhino, who is now thriving at Sanwild, a sanctuary in South Africa. Ravi Shankar and his daughter, Anoushka, appeared for the first time in an ad for PETA that ran on top television channels. Raveena Tandon posed with Jamuna, a cow, to protest cruel cattle transport, while film star Madhavan crouched in a cage, urging his fans to go vegetarian. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dev, Harsha Bhogle, Madhuri Dixit and Anupam Kher are some of the other celebrities who took time out of their busy schedules to help animals. All our ads, most of which are produced in 10 languages, can be seen by clicking here.
PETA India’s Animal Times, a quarterly magazine that features rescue stories, educational articles, animal-friendly celebrities and a health column by Dr Neal Barnard, president of the international group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has been gaining in circulation so quickly that PETA India can barely keep up with printing them. Ten thousand copies of the videotape Compassionate Citizen in Malayalam were distributed to schools in Kerala. Based on Share the World, an award-winning humane-education programme, Compassionate Citizen is hosted by Jackie Shroff, Nafisa Joseph and John Abraham.
‘With the continued support of the Indian people, our next birthday will see even greater changes and a far kinder country—and world—for animals’, states Chief Functionary Anuradha Sawhney.
PETA is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 750,000 members and supporters and affiliate offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. PETA have always considered India their ‘ideological home’—founder and President Ingrid Newkirk grew up in India.
For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com.
