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Protest Focuses on Abuse of "Sacred Cows"

Washington —Today, on Gandhi’s birthday, which is also World Day for Animals on Farms, a PETA activist climbed up and chained himself to the Gandhi statue recently erected outside the Indian Embassy carrying a sign reading, "India’s Cows Betrayed", in English and Hindi. The PETA activist was dragged away by three federal officers and charged with "statue climbing."

Gandhi once said that a cow is a " ... poem of compassion. To protect her is to protect all the creatures of God’s creation". Today, he would be rolling in his grave, for although India has strict laws regarding the humane treatment of cows, cows and calves are marched to slaughter for days and crammed into trucks, causing many to suffocate and others to be gouged by horns. Those who collapse from exhaustion or injury have their eyes smeared with chili peppers and tobacco and their tailbones continually broken in an effort to keep them moving. Their slaughter is often grossly inhumane, and their meat and skin is often exported.

PETA is appealing to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to enforce existing cattle protection laws. Joining PETA’s pleas are world religious leaders and celebrities, including the Dalai Lama, Jackie Chan, Paul McCartney, Pamela Anderson, and Mohandas Gandhi’s own grandson, Arun Gandhi.

"We are begging the prime minister to honor the memory of one of the greatest leaders and kindest men the world has ever known by stopping this horribly cruel business", says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who has personally followed the Indian "cattle trail."