BookMyShow Removes Animal Circuses From Its Platform Following PETA India Campaign
For Immediate Release:
30 August 2022
Contact:
Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]
Monica Chopra; [email protected]
Mumbai – Following a recent meeting with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, BookMyShow – India’s largest ticketing portal – has removed circuses using animals from its platform. As a result, a billboard placed by PETA India outside BookMyShow’s corporate office asking the company to stop supporting animal circuses has been replaced with one featuring boxer Vijender Singh that reads “Knock Out Cruelty: Boycott Circuses”. The company has verbally pledged to PETA India that it will introduce an official policy banning animal circuses.
“Circuses worldwide are moving towards using only consenting human performers who are free to come and go, get paid, and can retire – unlike animals who are caged, chained, and forced to do tricks for their entire lives under threat of punishment,” says PETA India Director Poorva Joshipura. “We commend BookMyShow for considering the animals’ plight and for its commitment to animal welfare and look forward to the company’s official policy, which we hope will make clear that it will support only circuses using willing human performers henceforth.”
The e-ticketing platform has sold tickets for Rambo Circus – whose owner was recently arrested for various violations of animal protection laws and released on bail – Great Gemini Circus, Ajanta Circus, and others. The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) recently sought action against Ajanta Circus for using animals without the required certification.
Circuses are so notorious for their cruelty to animals and disregard of animal protection laws that in 2017, 2019, and 2020, the AWBI advised the central government to pass legislation to stop the use of animals in circuses. Last year, the Central Zoo Authority cancelled its recognition of the Great Golden Circus, the only circus that was still using elephants for performances.
Appeals from 100 veterinarians in different states and a petition signed by 1 lakh students from private and government schools all across the country addressed to the minister of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying asking to establish laws that would prohibit the use of animals in circuses cited numerous reasons why circuses must be barred from using animals.
Several AWBI inspections and numerous investigations by PETA India prove that animal circuses are cruel: animals are continuously chained or confined to small, barren cages; deprived of veterinary care and adequate food, water, and shelter; and denied everything that’s natural and important to them. Through physical abuse with weapons, they’re forced to perform confusing, uncomfortable, and even painful tricks. Many display stereotypic, repetitive behaviour indicative of extreme stress.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – 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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