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Home > media centre > News Releases > PETA LAUNCHES NEW AD FEATURING MADHAVAN IMPRISONED IN TINY CAGE ‘LIKE AN ANIMAL’
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‘By no means was I comfortable during the photo shoot crouched in that small cage,’ explains Madhavan, a longtime vegetarian. ‘But what were a few fleeting moments of discomfort for me, as opposed to the suffering that animals raised for food are forced to endure from the time they are born.
Chickens raised for food today are intensively confined on factory farms, where they endure painful debeaking and declawing without anaesthesia. To increase profits, farmers genetically manipulate chickens so the birds will add flesh to their skeletons at the fastest possible rate. As a result, after just a few weeks, their legs and hearts are so overburdened by their excessive weight that they can barely reach food and water and commonly suffer heart attacks. Finally, the chickens are crammed onto lorries for a nightmarish ride to the butcher, without food or water. Some will go to large slaughtering facilities, while others will end up at small, independent shops.
No matter which destination the chickens are bound for, they will be stuffed 30 to a cage the size of an average television set and loaded onto lorries. Broken legs and wings and suffocation are typical on the way to slaughter. Moreover, the birds often suffer heat exhaustion because they aren’t protected from the weather. At organised abattoirs, despite their being equipped with machinery to stun the chickens, many birds are dunked directly into scalding water and skinned while still alive.
Other chickens are transferred from the lorries to tempos to be delivered to street shops. Dead birds are sold illegally at the rate of Rs 20 a bird to some stalls, where shopkeepers admit to paying off corrupt government officials and police. The birds who survive are again crammed into tiny cages where they continue to be deprived of food and water, which the butchers consider an unnecessary expense. The chickens use their last ounces of strength to struggle as they are pinned down to have their heads cut off.
‘We’ve all seen chickens crammed in cages at local butcher shops, but nobody stops to think about what trauma the animals are going through, never getting to run, play or feel grass beneath their feet,’ adds Madhavan. ‘It’s simple—I love animals, so I don’t eat them.’
While European nations like the UK and Germany are beginning to clamp down on factory farms because of their devastating effects on human health, the environment and animal welfare, India’s factory-farming industry is growing at an alarming rate. In Barwala, which has India’s highest concentration of chickens at approximately 55 lakh, whole populations of chickens on farms have contracted Coryza and fowl cholera.
‘I am deeply saddened by our nation’s appetite for animal flesh and the atrocities that it has created,’ laments Madhavan. ‘Animals are not the only victims of meat consumption; the Indian people also pay a high price in the form of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and many cancers. A healthful and compassionate plant-based diet is better for all of us.’
Among the many vegetarian celebrities speaking out against cruelty for meat are Sir Paul McCartney, Kim Basinger, Bryan Adams, Anil Kumble, Pamela Anderson, Christy Turlington, Moby, Amitabh Bachchan, Alicia Silverstone, Juhi Chawla, Natalie Portman and Spiderman star Tobey Maguire.
A copy of PETA India’s new ad featuring film star Madhavan is enclosed.
For more information, please visit our Web site PETAIndia.com.
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