With Pigeons, Dogs, Wildlife & Other Species Under Increasing Attack, PETA India Launches ‘Let Jivdaya Guide Us’ Campaign with Full Page Newspaper Cover

For Immediate Release:

24 August 2025

Contact:

Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]

Hiraj Laljani; [email protected]

Mumbai—Today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) is expending considerable resources to remind the nation of our deep roots in ahimsa (non-violence), launching its ‘Let Jivdaya Guide Us’ campaign with a striking full-page newspaper cover featured in the Sunday Times of India in its Delhi (National Capital Region) NCR and Mumbai editions, and on the cover of Mumbai Mirror, carrying the message of eternal truth: ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The world is one family.’

PETA India has grown increasingly concerned—as has everyone who cares for beloved community dogs and pigeons, who work to free elephants from chains, and who value protections for wild monkeys and other animals who live in the forests—about the Bombay High Court banning pigeon feeding, allowing these gentle, dependent birds to starve; Supreme Court decision declaring it illegal to feed community dogs in Delhi other than in places authorized by municipal authorities; and the removal of protections that rhesus macaques were afforded for over fifty years through the passage of the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022, so that they can be captured for use in experiments.

A copy of the print campaign is available upon request.

The print campaign – which reads, ‘When we honour jivdaya, we honour the soul of India’ –urges readers to be true to our national edict and extend compassion to all beings. It points out how far today’s reality for animals has drifted from the values of kindness and respect for life that India has always been known and admired for holding dear—a value it gifted to the world through the influence of ahimsa and vegetarianism as far back as 4th century BCE. (The Brokpa tribe of Ladakh are reported to have been vegan thousands of years ago, making them the original vegans. Vegans are vegetarians who do not consume dairy or any other animal derived foods.)

It further reads:

  • Pigeons go hungry where once they were fed.
  • Sensitive dogs are abused on the streets they call home.
  • Elephants sway in chains instead of walking free.
  • Cows are killed for leather when they should be protected.
  • Rhesus macaques are stolen from forests and used in experiments.

The print campaign concludes with a reminder: ‘Let us remember: compassion is not only our history – it is our current moral duty. Let the kindness that is India’s soul lead us forward. It costs nothing to be kind.’

‘India’s identity has always been bound to ahimsa, and we want to remind people that by treating animals with respect, we honour our own heritage. Animals are on this planet to exist with us, and not for us,’ says PETA India spokesperson, Hiraj Laljani. ‘Compassion is the true strength of our nation, and we must show the world and ourselves that we live up to it always.’

PETA India, an organisation that campaigns against violence to bulls and the killing of humans during jallikattu every year, calls on policymakers, the country’s courts and citizens to reflect on these values and act to prevent cruelty to animals, whether by helping animals in their communities, strengthening and enforcing laws to protect them, or going vegan.

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 Facebook, Instagram, or X.

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