Happy Horses as Passengers in a Motorised Carriage: PETA India’s Unique Pujo Installation Inspires Kindness to All of God’s Creation
During Durga Pujo, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil, an artistic display by PETA India at Atlanta Club – Tollygunge’s pandal featured two horses riding as passengers in a beautiful heritage-style motorised vehicle driven by a cheerful human. The exhibit seeks to present a kinder world for all of God’s creation, in which horses are treated with respect and are no longer forced to pull heavy carriages through congested city streets.
Visitors to the display scanned a QR code to learn about how to get involved in PETA India’s campaign to replace the use of horse-drawn carriages in Kolkata with the type of beautiful motorised vehicle shown. In Kolkata, investigations by PETA India and CAPE Foundation have revealed malnourished, injured and overworked horses being forced to haul tourists. PETA India regularly receives reports of collapsed, dead, and dying horses from the trade. In Mumbai, beautiful heritage-style e-carriages have replaced horse-drawn carriages.
Kolkata’s streets are filled with beauty and art, that’s something that sets it apart. Through PETA India’s Pujo display, visitors joined the efforts to make Kolkata even more beautiful, by encouraging a transition from the use of horse-drawn carriages to heritage-style motorised vehicles.
Last year, following appeals from PETA India and the CAPE Foundation, the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal state government to present a proposal for rehabilitating horse owners and providing them with an alternative livelihood to hauling tourists in horse-drawn carriages so that “dispensing with the horse-drawn carriages as done in Mumbai can be considered and examined for its feasibility”.
