For Immediate Release:
24 September 2003

Contact:
Anuradha Sawhney (0) 98201 22602; AnuradhaS@petaindia.org

Mumbai – Navratri diva Falguni Pathak wants Indians to extend the ‘veg pledge’ in honour of the nine manifestations of Durga and has teamed up with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), asking people to ‘Go Veg for 365 Days, Not Just Nine’. She appears in an e-card available exclusively on www.PETAIndia.com, designed by JJ School of Arts student Aashit Singh, which shows Falguni conjuring up a vegetarian dream as part of her ‘Do It All Year Long’ appeal.

While Navratri, a festival which lasts nine days, is celebrated in different ways around the country, most non-vegetarians refrain from consuming meat during the nine days. Falguni is hoping to convince them to go vegetarian for the whole year.

‘The 365 pledge is better for your health and for the animals’, says Falguni. ‘Every day can be a Navratri celebration, so let’s go vegetarian for life.’

Experts say that a well-planned vegetarian diet can be a healthy alternative to standard meat-based menus for all age groups. That includes during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence.

It’s no wonder that today millions of people worldwide are making the switch to vegetarianism, as they recognize the cruelty involved in meat production and the link between meat-eating and the burgeoning rates of heart disease, cancer and strokes. India now has among the highest rates of heart disease and diabetes in the world. Experts blame increased cardiovascular illnesses largely on the ‘wide adoption of the high-fat, hamburger lifestyle’.

Many of the animals eaten by people are raised on cruel factory farms. On these ‘farms’, animals like chickens are treated like machines; their welfare is ignored, as the farms’ only aim is to produce the most meat and eggs for the least money and in the shortest time possible.

Thus, chickens are often kept in crowded, filthy sheds – many of them in cages so cramped that they can’t even turn around or spread a wing. Mother hens’ beaks are sliced off without anaesthetics. After a period of 40 to 50 days, the birds are caught by their legs and packed onto trucks, tied painfully upside-down on the back of bicycles or stuffed into baskets for a nightmarish ride to the abattoir – always without food or water. At the abattoir, these animals are hung by their legs, and their throats are slit, often while they’re fully conscious.

‘On the ninth day of Navratri, Goddess Durga kills the demon Mahishasura to wipe out evil and bring joy to the world’, adds Falguni. ‘This Navratri, wipe out meat from your diet forever, and bring joy to all animals.’

Vegetarianism not only is the healthiest and most compassionate diet, but also is popular with many musicians, such as Sir Paul McCartney, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain and Chrissie Hynde, and top celebrities, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Yana Gupta, Kim Basinger, Martina Navratilova, Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Ashley Judd and Toby Maguire.

For more information, please visit our Web site www.PETAIndia.com.