E-Rickshaw Handed to Meerut Family by PETA India in Ceremony After Injured Mule Is Retired to Sanctuary

For Immediate Release:

08 October 2025

Contact:

Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]

Anushka Yadav; [email protected]

Meerut – On Wednesday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) delivered a battery-operated electronic rickshaw to Masoori village, Rajpura Block, resident Pradeep, son of Mamchand, to replace a mule whom Pradeep had used to transport bricks and other goods in the presence of the former village Pradhan Shri Yogesh Pradhan. The donation will help Pradeep earn a sustainable livelihood for himself and his family, promote mechanisation in the region as a more compassionate, efficient, profitable and modern option than using animals for labour.

After a PETA India volunteer noticed the mule’s poor condition in a brick kiln, she convinced Pradeep to allow PETA India to transfer the mule to a sanctuary where she could be rehabilitated. The mule, named Chabeeli, had her injuries treated and now spends her days relaxing in the shade with fellow equines. In exchange, PETA India arranged an e-rickshaw for Pradeep.

Photos and videos of the handover event are available upon request.

“E-rickshaws spare suffering, exhausted horses, mules, bulls, and other animals from pulling heavy loads while being more reliable and efficient than animals,” says PETA India Sr. Manager of Mechanisation Projects Mahesh Tyagi. “PETA India is delighted to help Pradeep and his family be the example of what can be achieved with an e-rickshaw.”

PETA India works to protect animals such as bullocks, donkeys, ponies, and horses who are abused and forced to haul heavy loads and to improve community wellbeing by encouraging families to transition to mechanised means. Equines and bulls are often forced to work even when they are sick or injured. Handlers desperate to earn money use whips, painful nose ropes, and spiked bits to force them to haul overloaded carts. The animals are denied access to proper nutrition, adequate water, and protection from weather extremes. They are typically worked until death and given no veterinary care for common painful health concerns, including wounds, abscesses, muscle and joint ailments, cancer, blindness, and yoke gall.

Since its Delhi Mechanisation Project – a winner of the Giving Economy Changemakers Award – was launched in 2018, PETA India has rescued more than 150 equines and bullocks from hauling heavy loads in the nation’s capital, replacing them with battery-operated e-rickshaws. PETA India ensures the rehabilitation of the rescued animals at sanctuaries and enhances the social and economic status of the humans benefitting from the project. In Meerut, PETA India plans to do a health camp to alleviate animals of some suffering, guide animal owners in better animal care and to assess needs.

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 PETA India on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

#