PETA India Files Damning Jallikattu 2022 Investigation Report in Supreme Court

For Immediate Release:

9 December 2022

Contact:

Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]

Sachin Bangera; [email protected]

Shocking Stats: Since 2017, at Least 86 Humans and 23 Bulls Have Been Reportedly Killed, and There Have Been 6,351 Human Injuries, During Jallikattu Events

Delhi – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has released a new investigation report on jallikattu events that took place in 2022 in Tamil Nadu, highlighting, once again, the events’ extreme cruelty to bulls. PETA India has submitted a 90-page report of its findings to the Supreme Court of India, where a constitution bench consisting of Hon’ble Justices Kuttiyil Mathew Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and Chudalayil Thevan Ravikumar have just finished hearing petitions filed by the group as well as other animal protection organisations and individuals challenging the constitutionality of jallikattu, kambala, and bullock-cart races. PETA India’s petition states that these events are inherently cruel, as they are forms of bullying that exploit bulls’ natural instinct as prey animals to flee in response to pain and fear. PETA India’s findings were presented before the Hon’ble Supreme Court by Shyam Divan, senior advocate, on behalf of the group.

PETA India has carefully documented incidents in which, among other acts of cruelty, bulls were deliberately frightened and hit, yanked painfully by the ropes threaded through their nostrils, and jabbed with nail-studded weapons during jallikattu events every year since they were permitted again in 2017. Presenting the investigative findings of PETA India from 2017 to 2022 before the court, Divan submitted that none of the findings had been disputed or controverted by the State of Tamil Nadu.

The video footage, photos from the investigation, and the in-dept report in English are available upon request.

PETA India’s 2022 investigation reveals acts of severe cruelty to animals and perilous situations, which include the following:

  • Panicked bulls fled onto village streets, injuring onlookers and reportedly goring them to death. At one event, a teenage spectator was reportedly killed.
  • Bulls were viciously hit, whipped with ropes, and jabbed with nail-tipped wooden sticks, and metal sickles inside vaadi vaasals.
  • Participants bit the animals’ tails, which they twisted, yanked, and broke, in order to provoke them.
  • Nose ropes were yanked so violently that the bulls’ nostrils bled profusely.
  • Onlookers hit and jumped onto bulls fleeing the collection yards and engaged in the illegal practice of “parallel jallikattu”.
  • Bulls sustained severe injuries, including broken bones, and some collapsed.
  • Many bulls were not adequately physically examined by veterinarians.
  • No COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were enforced, exposing everyone present to the risk of contracting the disease.

Since the Tamil Nadu government legalised jallikattu in 2017, at least 23 bulls and 86 humans have been killed outright, and 6,351 humans have been injured in events throughout the state, according to various news reports. Since many bull deaths and human injuries are not reported, these figures are likely vast underestimates.

“PETA India’s investigations tell the story of mass injury and death for humans and bulls and the deliberately vicious torment of bulls who are forced to take part in jallikattu,” says PETA India Senior Legal Counsel Arunima Kedia. “Jallikattu is an inherently abusive and dangerously violent form of entertainment that violates all sense of decency. PETA India hopes that the Hon’ble Supreme Court will recognise that bulls don’t deserve to suffer for the sake of human amusement in the land of ahimsa.”

PETA India’s investigation spanned seven jallikattu events, including three erudhuvidumvizha events, conducted in the Coimbatore, Krishnagiri, Madurai, and Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu from 14 to 31 January 2022. The report also includes similar findings of bullying and cruelty from three jallikattu events the group investigated in Alanganallur, Avaniapuram, and Palamedu in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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