Steps Taken by Outside Organisations to Improve Conditions

It is the responsibility of the Mumbai government to direct that the Deonar general manager ensure the activities conducted in Deonar are legal, humane, accepted and safe and to impart that duty to the other managers and the large veterinary staff. It is the joint responsibility of Mumbai's additional muncipal commissioner, Mr Gautam Chatterjee and the mayor of Mumbai, Mr Hareshwar Patil, to work with the municipal commissioner, Mr. Karun Chandra Srivastava, to make certain that Deonar is managed in this manner. The state government, including the chief minister, minister of transport, minister of animal husbandry, and director general of police are responsible for enforcing animal protection laws.

PETA has sent repeated letters to government officials and to the Bombay SPCA informing them of the problems at Deonar and urging them to take immediate corrective action. In May of 2000, PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, met with Mayor Patil and his staff. The mayor pledged to take immediate action, but to date, no improvements whatsoever have been made.

WSPA and HSA traveled from the UK to Mumbai in July to visit the abattoir in an effort to improve conditions. These experts submitted a list of basic suggestions and guidelines to the slaughterhouse management and municipality. During PETA's most recent visit in December 2000, it was clear that absolutely no steps have been taken toward the enforcement of animal protection laws and humane treatment and that the Deonar management and Mumbai municipality have no plans to take any steps in the future.

Avoidance of Responsibility by Deonar Management and Government

Dr Vishnupurikar and his staff assert that the Mumbai municipality merely provides the facility for the sale and slaughter of animals and declare that the welfare of the animals is the responsibility of the traders and the Bombay SPCA. Dr Vishnupurikar has claimed that the Deonar management and the municipality have no control over the traders and their operations. This tactic to avoid responsibility is disgraceful and unsupportable. It also contradicts the observations PETA made during its announced visit with WSPA, HSA, and CLE. at which time it was clear that Dr. Vishnupurikar had taken special care to clean up the facility to prevent the inspectors from viewing the usual chaos, dead and severely injured animals, overloaded lorries and so on and had created a false picture by directing that the animals be slaughtered separately. During this visit, it was clear that Dr Vishnupurikar and his staff can indeed control what goes on within Deonar.