Wearing masks and brandishing signs in English and Hindi that proclaim, “Jallikattu: Harmful to Humans and Animals” and “India: Keep the Ban on Cruel Jallikattu and Bull Races”, a group of PETA “bulls” gathered outside the High Commission of India in London today. The action comes as special-interest groups attempt to overturn the Indian Supreme Court’s recent confirmation that bullfights, bull races, and jallikattu (rodeo-style bull-baiting events) violate India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
Videos from these events show terrified bulls as they are chased, kicked, punched, jumped on, dragged to the ground, and stabbed. During races, they are hit with nail-studded sticks and pushed beyond the point of exhaustion. In bullfights, they are stabbed and a round ends only when one animal is killed or manages to flee, invariably injured.
“India must not roll back the clock and allow bulls to be tormented and killed to amuse a screaming crowd”, says PETA UK Managing Director Ingrid Newkirk, who is also the founder of PETA India. “The world is watching and hoping that the government of India will do the right thing by keeping these dangerous and cruel spectacles illegal.”
Other PETA affiliates – whose shared motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – have also held anti-jallikattu demonstrations at Indian embassies in Canada and elsewhere around the world.
