Film Stars Speak Up for Animals Abused in Cruel Leather Trade
For Immediate Release:
18 November 2002
Contact:
Anuradha Sawhney (0) 98201 22602; AnuradhaS@peta.org
Mumbai — How can concerned members of the public do as much or more than Bollywood stars to help end animal suffering? The best way to begin is to pick up the Winter 2002-2003 issue of PETA India’s Animal Times. In it, Bollywood beauty Raveena Tandon tells why she has become the latest celebrity to join People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) fight against the cruel and illegal transport of buffaloes, cows, goats and sheep. Raveena appears in a brand-new PETA ad that shows her standing in a pasture with her new friend Jamuna, a cow, and reads, ‘Steer Clear of Animal Cruelty. Stop Cruel Transport’. Says Raveena, ‘Jamuna and other animals like her are as gentle as their abusers are violent’. Also, actor Anupam Kher sent a letter on PETA’s behalf to an Orissa-based anti-corruption bureau, thanking them for their undercover investigation, which revealed that vehicles illegally hauling severely overcrowded animals between Orissa and West Bengal pay heavy bribes to police and transport officials to look the other way.
PETA India’s Animal Times readers will learn about PETA’s Compassionate Citizen humane education programme, which is distributed free of charge to educators of students ages 8 through 12. The programme, which includes a video hosted by actor Jackie Shroff and models John Abraham and Nafisa Joseph, encourages children to help see to it that animals are treated more humanely. Compassionate Citizen has been heralded by educators—and even law-enforcement officials: ‘It is a positive, wonderful step that will change the future of children and will contribute to building a more peaceful society’, says D.S. Soman, former director general of police in Maharashtra state.
Readers can catch up on who’s cool and who’s cruel in the ‘Purrs & Grrrs’ feature:
- ‘Purrs’ are in order to designer Hemant Trevedi for ending his association with the International Leather Fair in Chennai after learning how animals killed for their hides suffer in transport and are skinned alive at slaughter.
- ‘Grrrs’ go to Mumbai-based Teja Industries for refusing to join the international boycott of Indian leather as Nike, Gucci and more than 40 other major companies worldwide have done.
Readers will delight in the story of the ‘Mumbai 10’, geese rescued from appalling conditions and now living the good life. Three of the geese had been kept as ‘decorations’ in the littered driveway of a restaurant, two of them badly injured. Seven other geese were being used as an attraction at a suburban Mumbai furniture store with nothing but filthy water to swim in and had no shelter. A team of activists from PETA and People for Animals swooped in to save the suffering birds and placed them at a beautiful sanctuary in Maharashtra.
For questions about nutrition and health, there’s the ‘Doctor in the House’ column, featuring Neal Barnard, MD, president of the US-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. In the new issue, Dr Barnard answers a writer’s enquiry with regard to adult-onset diabetes, explaining that diabetics can dramatically reduce their blood sugar levels and even reduce or eliminate their medication by switching to a slimming vegan diet.
Children, especially, will love to read about ‘Colonel Corn’, PETA’s 2+-metre-tall vegetarian mascot, who, this year, brought his ‘Peas Corps’ tour to the Middle East and was a big hit in Jerusalem, where he handed out peaceful soya ‘meats’. In India, PETA donated vegan food to people in troubled Gujarat. Explains PETA’s Asia representative, Jason Baker, ‘People obviously can’t stop war single-handedly, but they can take steps in their own lives to promote peace’.
Finally, readers can order PETA’s 2003 ‘Rescued’ calendar, which features beautiful photos of rescued animals, along with their heartwarming stories.
PETA India’s Animal Times also lets readers know how they can get involved in helping animals all over the country. All they have to do is look for the ‘You Can Help’ segment at the end of articles, which instructs them on what to do and whom to contact when they spot animal abuse.
For information about becoming a PETA member and getting a yearly subscription to Animal Times, call (022) 2628 1880 or write to PO Box 28260, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049.
PETA India’s Animal Times is not copyrighted. Full or partial reprints are encouraged. For high-quality copies of any of the images, please contact PETA.
