• PETA sent letters to officials Ms Parker met with in July reiterating her expert recommendations and asking for a progress report. PETA received no response. PETA also sent letters with expert suggestions to all state ministers of agriculture, animal husbandry and transport as well as letters to the new national minister of agriculture, the minister of commerce, the union minister of transport and Prime Minister Vajpayee. The Minister of Commerce, Murasoli Maran, was urged to follow up on his meeting with state officials in September 2000, and Prime Minister Vajpayee was asked to follow up on his direction to state governments to enforce animal protection laws and to pass amendments to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 that would increase penalties for animal abuse.
• PETA obtained a copy of a letter sent by the CLE’s M. Mohamed Hashim to Deichmann, a major German shoe company. In it Mr Hashim stated, “The balance 90 per cent (of leather) is accounted for by goat, sheep and buffalo, where slaughter is allowed across the country, and the issue of inhumane treatment during transport is not significant.” PETA quickly fired off a letter to Mr Hashim that stated, “Mr Hashim, we are the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and have been for over 20 years, not People for the Ethical Treatment of Cows. If, in all this time, you have failed to realise our intention to improve the pathetic and unlawful transport and slaughter conditions of goats, pigs, buffaloes and any other sentient being tortured for leather as well as cows, those who told us not to trust you must be shown to be correct. Goats, sheep and other animals suffer just as much as cows, and their welfare is, indeed, significant and must be addressed by industries, like yours, that profit from it by the thousands upon thousands of crore rupees!”
• The BSPCA held a training session at Deonar to follow up on Ms Parker’s talk in July, but many of Deonar’s workers did not attend. Although Deonar’s Dr Vishnupurikar pledged to invite BSPCA to hold training sessions at least biweekly, the BSPCA has not been invited since.
• Some traders, frustrated that Deonar was the target of routine protests, confidentially requested BSPCA inspectors to man transport checkpoints at specific highly trafficked times. These traders were losing out on business to criminal traders whom Deonar still rewards by doing business with them and who bring animals to the abattoir in unlawful and overcrowded conditions. BSPCA wanted police help and needed Dr Vishnupurikar’s support, but despite PETA’s letters to relevant officials, BSPCA did not receive the assistance it required.
• More states’ DGP’s forwarded to their police training centres PETA’s instructional video on laws that require enforcement in order to improve transport conditions for animals and agreed to crack down on cruelties in transport; yet, actual stopping of overcrowded and ill-suited vehicles is still minimal and insufficient.
• The head of PETA’s German office, Harald Ullmann, met with a coalition of German retailers that pledged to push the Indian government to take serious steps to stop unnecessary cruelties in transport and slaughter.
• Nike and Reebok, the world’s top two shoe companies, Peru-based Foresta Internacional s.r.l., Kenneth Cole and Spiegel joined the list of companies who were promising not to use leather obtained from Indian animals at least until basic laws are enforced in leather production. Foresta Internacional decided to join the boycott after speaking to PETA’s Poorva Joshipura at the Shoe Market of the Americas fair held in Miami. These boycotts came at a time when the Indian leather industry was trying to open new markets in Peru and other Latin American countries. The Financial Express reported that $40 million had been lost by the leather industry as a result of these companies’ decisions not to support unlawful cruelty.
• The CLE sent a letter to PETA asking it to end its campaign to inform companies of the cruelty meted out to Indian animals for leather; however, the CLE’s letter failed to mention any concrete steps it was taking to stop the abuse. PETA questioned the CLE as to how it could expect PETA to stop letting companies with policies against supporting unlawful abuse, who have a right to know how the products they use are obtained, know about tortures in transport and slaughter without even stating what progress, if any, has been made.
Late 1998-1999
2000
January-February
March-April
May-June
July-August
September-October
November-December
2001
January-February
March-April
May-June
July-August
September-October
November-December
