Representing PETA India and Animal Rahat, a panel of India's most renowned equine veterinarians – who together have more than 32 years of experience addressing India's most challenging equine welfare issues – came together with Mumbai for Horses and People for Animals to make the case that the only way to stop the abuse and suffering of horses used to pull carriages through the streets of Mumbai and avoid the traffic hazards that they cause is to enact an all-out city-wide ban on Victorias. The experts also explained that passengers, drivers and pedestrians are injured and even killed when horse-drawn carriages are involved in accidents.

Three equine experts – Dr Manilal Valliyate, director of veterinary affairs for PETA India and member of the Animal Welfare Board of India; Dr Avinash Kumar, a leading equine veterinarian who has worked for The Brooke, an equine welfare charity; and Dr Chetan Yadav, an equine veterinarian and leading animal welfare specialist working for Animal Rahat – presented graphic, never-before-seen photos and video footage proving that keeping horse-drawn carriages on the roads would only ensure that the cycle of abuse continues.

Dr Valliyate explained that once horses lose function in a joint, as happens quickly when they're made to walk on pavement or haul heavy loads, more stress will be placed on their other joints, tendons and ligaments. No veterinary medicine or surgery can cure this condition, and it cannot be reversed. The equine veterinarians also pointed out that any move to issue licenses to the city's currently filthy, decrepit and illegal stables could subject the horses to various infectious diseases – such as glanders, strangles, tetanus and equine influenza – and cause many animals to die.

Horse used to haul a carriage despite painfully swollen joints.

Furthermore, despite an order from the Bombay High Court that nongovernmental organisations be permitted to inspect horses for signs of poor health or compromised welfare and report the matter to an executive health officer and despite holding written authorisation from the Animal Welfare Board of India – a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests – to conduct such an inspection, a team of equine veterinarians from PETA and Animal Rahat was harassed and prevented from conducting inspections of the horses used to haul carriages in Mumbai by the carriage owners and drivers and their lawyer.

A delegation from PETA met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to present a letter from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) objecting to plans to build a dolphin park in Sindhudurg. Animal protection organisations are unanimously opposed to this cruel proposal.

The MoEF rightfully points out that it is illegal to hunt and capture animals protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. What's more, multiple studies have determined that keeping dolphins and other marine animals in captivity leads to suffering and premature death because their complex needs simply cannot be met in cramped and barren tanks.

Dolphins inhabit vast and fascinating worlds in their ocean home and establish close, cooperative and long-standing relationships. They swim freely and socialise in family groups and can cover up to 100 miles a day. Dolphins used in marine parks are violently torn away from their families and confined to small tanks in which they can only swim in endless circles and perform tricks for food. Most captive dolphins die far short of their expected lifespan.

Time is of the essence to get this plan stopped! Please contact the Maharashtra Chief Minister at chiefminister@maharashtra.gov.in, the Minister of Tourism, India, at tourismminister@nic.in and the Maharashtra Forest Minister at min.forest@maharashtra.gov.in and urge them to abandon plans to open a dolphinarium in Sindhudurg.

Posted by PETA