PETA India Moves Supreme Court With New Investigations Into Jallikattu and Other Events Revealing Mass Suffering and Death

For Immediate Release:

18 July 2023

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Delhi –People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking review of the judgement dated 18 May 2023 in the batch of petitions titled Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) vs Union of India and Ors, by which the Supreme Court legalised barbaric and cruel jallikattu, kambala, and bullock-cart racing events that take place in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, respectively. With the review petition, PETA India has filed new reports of investigations into all three events conducted in 2023, once again evidencing extreme cruelty to animals and disregard for human life.

The findings come in the wake of the recent dismissal of petitions filed by PETA India and other animal welfare organisations and individuals challenging the constitutionality of the three amendments allowing these states to hold the events. The Supreme Court judgement dated 18 May 2023 upheld the constitutionality of these amendments, allowing the violent spectacles to continue and wrongly claiming that cruelty had reduced. In reality, since the Tamil Nadu government allowed jallikattu in 2017, at least 115 humans, 38 bulls, and a cow have reportedly died in the events and 8,630 humans and at least 30 bulls were reportedly injured. Since many bull deaths and human injuries are not reported, these figures are likely vast underestimates.

Ever since 2017, when the three states promulgated their respective amendments to The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, completely exempting these events from the purview of the PCA Act, PETA India has been conducting investigations into jallikattu and kambala and filing eye-witness reports supported by news reports before the Supreme Court, demonstrating that these events are inherently cruel and requesting that they be prohibited. However, the Supreme Court failed to take note of or mention any of the findings when forming its latest judgement.

These investigation reports reinforce the earlier findings of the government body the AWBI, which formed the basis for the Supreme Court’s previous ban on the events through a detailed and well-reasoned judgement dated 7 May 2014, which was subsequently upheld under review in 2016.

However, the same events, involving equally cruel practices and risk of death and injury to bulls and humans, have now been allowed by the Supreme Court. PETA India’s latest investigations once again reveal that the events are cruel and barbaric and ought to be prohibited.

The Video footage from PETA India’s investigations and the In-depth reports are available upon request.

An investigation into Tamil Nadu’s 2023 jallikattu events revealed the following:

Bulls were beaten, tackled, prodded with wooden sticks and other sharp objects, and yanked by nose ropes, causing their noses to bleed.
Exhausted and dehydrated bulls were forced to participate after being made to stand in queues for hours without shade, water, or food, and many collapsed from exhaustion or dehydration before and after racing.
After authorities refused to extend the time of an event in Tamil Nadu, owners let loose a bull who gored a young spectator to death, sparking a riot in which 35 people were arrested.
This year, the reported death toll of bulls and humans skyrocketed: 29 humans died this year in comparison to 17 humans last year, and 15 bulls died this year in comparison to two bulls last year.

Investigations into Maharashtra bullock-cart events in 2023 revealed the following:

Bullocks were denied food, water, and shade and forced to run even when exhausted.
Bullocks’ tails were bitten and twisted, causing them to bleed.
Bullocks were yanked by nose ropes, causing their noses to bleed.
Bullocks were poked with spiked torture devices with protruding nails called “kela” and pelted with rocks.
According to newspaper articles published between 2022 and June 2023, there were eight reported human deaths, several injuries, and three bull deaths in Maharashtra’s bullock-cart events.

Investigations into Karnataka’s kambala events from the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 revealed the following:

Buffaloes were yanked by the nose, beaten with sticks, slapped in the face, and kicked and exhibited fresh, bleeding wounds.
Reluctant, exhausted buffaloes were beaten with wooden sticks and bare hands to force them to race.
Buffaloes were hit with wooden sticks from the start to the finish line, throughout the races.
Several buffaloes were ruthlessly hit with wooden sticks to provoke them before they were taken to the starting line to race.

“Every year, PETA India’s investigations reveal mass suffering, injury, and death for humans and other animals alike as well as the deliberate torment of bulls and buffaloes who are forced to race,” says PETA India Deputy Director of Advocacy Projects Harshil Maheshwari. “PETA India is once again calling on the Hon’ble Supreme Court to recognise that cruelty to bulls and buffalos has no place in our modern society and to reinstate the prohibition of these cruel events.”

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA India’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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