For Immediate Release:

May 5, 2000

Contact:

Jason Baker 98201 22602

New Delhi -- In an effort to stop the cruel treatment of cattle by India’s illegal leather trade, Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), will kick off an international fast during her presentation at the statue in Delhi this week:

Date
Thursday, May 11

Time
12:00 to 1:00 p.m. (sharp)

Place
Eleven Murti on Sardar Patel Marg in Chanakyapuri

Simultaneously, at their homes overseas, four of PETA’s most famous members—Paul McCartney, Steven Seagal, Brigitte Bardot, and Nina Hagen—will also be fasting.

"My heart breaks for the misery endured by all the mother cows and their calves—the once-proud bullocks and hard-worked buffalo—who have become throw-aways in today’s India," states McCartney in a letter to Newkirk. "My thoughts will be with PETA and with the cows and, most importantly, with the kind people of India—they will surely be compelled to join you in demanding action from the government to stop the cruelty inflicted on animals by the leather and meat trades."

In March, McCartney appealed to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to fight the corruption and illegal practices that permeate the transport and slaughter of cows in India. McCartney enclosed with his heart-felt letter to the prime minister evidence gathered by Newkirk during her last trip to India. Newkirk is seeking a meeting with the prime minister and will meet with the minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and other ministers and state officials, including the mayor of Mumbai, home of one of the most notoriously cruel slaughterhouses in India.

As part of an undercover investigation, Newkirk witnessed the bribing of guards who employ children to allow skin-traders to smuggle cattle across state borders. She documented the suffering of exhausted and injured cattle who are transported in the dead of night. The cows, bullocks, and calves, racked with pain and filled with fear, are sent to slaughter in overcrowded trucks, enduring the long journey without food or water. When animals collapse, they are savagely beaten, have chili peppers rubbed in their eyes, and have their tails broken at each joint. Many do not make it to the slaughterhouse alive and are left in the burning sun, injured and without water.

While the Constitution of India prohibits cruelty to cattle, PETA maintains that every cattle protection law is violated daily. Law enforcement authorities fail to police cattle shipments by rail and road, allowing corruption to thrive at state borders and cows to continue to suffer the cruel transport conditions. PETA has documented illegal practices at slaughterhouses, as well.

Of the symbolic fast, Seagal writes, "This small sacrifice (which I am encouraging others to emulate) will serve as my appeal to those in power—whether they are high-ranking government officials in India, or teenagers shopping for leather in American malls. By opening their eyes, and their hearts, each of them can help bring a life free of terror and pain to the cows now being illegally killed by the black-market leather trade."

Photographs and videotape from PETA’s investigation are available upon request.