Jallikattu is BULLying, Says PETA India in New Billboard Campaign

For Immediate Release:

21 February 2023

Contact:

Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]

Harshil Maheshwari; [email protected]

Chennai – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is erecting a series of sky-high appeals locally, urging everyone to “say no” to cruel jallikatu. The campaign – which shows a bull being chased, pulled by the horns, and taunted – has so far been placed close to Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai, and nearby Arignar Anna Government Arts College in Manapparai, to catch the attention of young people. PETA India points out that jallikattu is bullying because its very purpose is to harm and intimidate bulls.

“Youngsters know that ragging and harassing women and the elderly is wrong, but they need to understand that bullying animals is, too. Jallikattu participants bully animals by dragging them by their nose ropes, beating them, and deliberately terrifying them to make them run. Human participants and even spectators get hurt in the process,” says PETA India volunteer Niranjan Shanmuganathan. “Before another bull or human gets hurt, PETA India is calling on the youth to stick to human-only forms of entertainment that leave animals in peace.”

PETA India’s latest investigation reveals yet again that during jallikattu, bulls are deliberately frightened and hit, yanked painfully by the ropes threaded through their nostrils, and jabbed with nail-studded weapons. According to various news reports, since jallikattu was allowed again in 2017, at least 25 bulls and 93 humans have been killed and thousands of humans have been injured in events throughout the state. Children have also been the victims of jallikattu. PETA India recently submitted a 90-page report of its investigation findings to the Honourable Supreme Court of India, challenging the constitutionality of jallikattu.

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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