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Asia's #1 Box Office Star Asks Indian Prime Minister to Act Forcefully and Immediately to Stop Abuse of Animals Killed for Meat and Leather

For Immediate Release:

22nd August 2000

Contact:

Jason Baker 98201 22561

New Delhi -- Describing himself as "greatly saddened" by the well-documented torture of the millions of Indian cattle now killed for meat and leather exports, actor Jackie Chan is urging Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to fight the widespread corruption and illegal practices that permeate the cruel transport and slaughter of cattle in India–animals whose skin and flesh end up for sale in Asia, the United States, Europe, and all over the world.

Referring to cattle allowed to suffocate in hot overcrowded lorries and stabbed by children on filthy abattoir floors, Chan writes in a letter to the prime minister, "I am especially alarmed that such abuses, while illegal under India’s stringent animal welfare laws, continue in this wonderful land where reverence for life is a matter of national pride".

Chan’s letter was penned after he watched a video appeal from Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, a spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 1998, Chan was so moved by the suffering of dogs in Taiwan’s pounds that he lent his voice to help PETA persuade the R.O.C. government to pass its very first cruelty to animals act.

Chan, a native of Hong Kong, is the first Asian actor to speak up for India’s cows. He joins Sir Paul McCartney and Steven Seagal, as well as religious figures from all over the world, in calling for immediate action to stop abuses exposed by PETA during an undercover investigation.

The animal rights organisation witnessed the bribing of guards, who allowed skin-traders to smuggle cattle across state borders, and 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 lorries, enduring the long journey without food or water. When animals collapse, they are savagely beaten, have chili peppers rubbed into their eyes, and have their tails broken at each joint. Many do not make it to the abattoirs alive. Those who do are often abandoned to cook alive in abattoirs like those run by the municipal governments in Mumbai and Calcutta.

While the Constitution of India prohibits cruelty to cattle, every cattle protection law is violated daily–as the government simply looks the other way. The Indian minister for railways has refused to take action, and the prime minister so far seems only to have written a letter to state governors (which they have ignored). PETA are threatening to escalate their campaign if cattle suffering continues unabated.

"Will you please act right away by using the power of your great office to ensure that federal, state and municipal authorities treat these crimes as a matter of priority and enforce the laws"? Chan asks the prime minister.