PETA India Animal Times Monsoon 2020

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A N I M A L S A R E N O T O U R S | P E T A I N D I A . C O M | M O N S O O N 2 0 2 0 ANIMAL TIMES

Let’s Stamp Out SPECIESISM Get Involved!

justify treating other living, feeling beings as property, objects, or even ingredients. It’s a bias rooted in the willingness to deny others their own agency, interests, and self-worth, often for personal gain. We know better. Animals, like us, are all unique individuals who have their own emotions, desires, needs, and complex lives. They deserve our respect and to be left in peace.

Joaquin: © Rio Phoenix • Chicken: © iStock.comAbramova_Kseniya

How do we end speciesism? As Phoenix’s ad says, we end it by living vegan. Every choice we make counts – what we decide to buy, eat, wear, and do for entertainment and how we treat all the animals in our lives.

“We are all animals.” Long-time PETA pal Joaquin Phoenix made the connection at this year’s Oscars when, during his stirring Best Actor acceptance speech for Joker , he called out the dairy industry for its inherent cruelty to mother cows and their calves – and called for an enlightened rather than human supremacist worldview, one that includes all animals. If you’ve seen the mega-star’s striking billboards that PETA India placed around Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai, you know that our campaign to end speciesism is waking people up and creating change. Speciesism is why humans treat rats like disposable laboratory equipment, exploit cows and buffaloes in the dairy and meat industries, butcher snakes for their skin, and beat elephants at Amer Fort and force them into a lifetime of servitude.

Human supremacism is the toxic belief that our species is superior to all the others, a line of “reasoning” used to

© iStock.com/sdbower

A Message From Dr Manilal Valliyate PETA India , s Chief Executive Officer

© PETA India

Dear Animal Times Reader,

novel coronavirus planned to bury 150 baby chicks alive, we swooped in to rescue them. They are now happy and thriving – and will never be eaten. PETA India also submitted a complaint to the Advertising Standards Council of India after the Karnataka Poultry Farmers & Breeders Association and Vencobb – part of All India Poultry Development and Services Pvt Ltd – posted a Facebook advertisement claiming that eating chicken could boost immunity and help beat the coronavirus. The advertisement was pulled immediately after our complaint. Whatever comes our way, PETA India keeps going full steam ahead, just as we always have – to stop animal suffering and maintain pressure on animal-exploiting companies and industries as well as anyone who abuses living, feeling beings. Please be a part of our movement and help keep us strong. . For all animals,

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a near-standstill, but animal suffering didn’t stop – so neither did PETA India! Whether there’s a pandemic, an economic downturn, a natural disaster, or any other challenging event, animals can depend on us. While people sheltered at home, PETA India’s emergency response team treated a donkey with a saddle injury and rescued a dog with a broken leg, a cat with a large maggot-filled wound, a young parakeet who was being picked on by crows and unable to take flight, and many other animals. Each member of our rescue staff also dedicated time every day to visiting railway stations and bus stands, where animals would typically be fed by restaurant and canteen staff, to scout for hungry animals. Our call volume increased, and as always, our dedicated team was available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When lockdowns left community animals in many states and union territories in danger of starvation and without veterinary care, PETA India urged local governments to expand “essential services” to include animal rescue, emergency aid for animals, and mobile veterinary services. We also dispelled dangerous myths about COVID-19 that were causing some people to abandon their animal companions – and encouraged the public to adhere to Prime Minister Modi’s advice to feed and take care of community animals near their homes. When we heard that a farmer who was panicking about the

Dr Manilal Valliyate

PETA India‘s rescue team fed more than 2,000 hungry dogs, cats, horses, bullocks, goats, and pigeons, during the lockdown.

PETA INDIA’S ANIMAL TIMES ® Volume 19, Number 3

All portions of this publication not accompanied by the © symbol are not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely.

Editor: Ingrid E Newkirk Chief Executive Officer: Dr Manilal Valliyate Senior Editor: Roxanne Conwell Associate Editor: Alisa Mullins Copy Editors: Karen Porreca • Teresa K Miller

PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA) INDIA

If you come across an animal in distress, please call us on (0) 98201 22602.

PO Box 28260, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049 (022) 4072 7382 • (022) 2636 7383 (fax) Info@petaindia.org • PETAIndia.com

PETA India has a new Facebook page, in Tamil, at Facebook.com/PETAIndiaTamil .

© iStock.com/Omm-on-tour

How to Prevent a Pandemic: Go Vegan!

Experts say it’s only a matter of time before we face another pandemic. The novel coronavirus reportedly first infected humans at a live-animal market in China. Before that, we had MERS, SARS, avian flu (H5N1), and swine flu (H1N1), all resulting from how we treat animals used for food. H5N1 is so deadly that it kills about 60% of humans who catch it. Its first recorded cases in humans, in 1997, coincided with outbreaks among birds on poultry farms and in meat markets in Hong Kong. And health authorities estimate that as many as 575,400 humans worldwide died from H1N1 swine flu during its first year circulating among our species. Of course, China isn’t the only source of pathogens. In India, we have live-animal markets full of sick chickens, goats, and other animals. Investigators have also found markets here that sell the charred remains of deer, wild boar, monkeys, and porcupines and butcher dogs whose blood, guts, and waste are then carried out to other locations on the shoes of customers and sellers. More than 70% of the world’s animals raised for food are now factory-farmed, and chicken farms in India are notoriously filthy. Dangerous bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens flourish in such conditions. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases affecting humans originated in animals.

© Miragik | Dreamstime.com

WHAT YOU CAN DO Help prevent future pandemics, save animals’ lives, and protect your health by going vegan. Order PETA India’s free vegetarian/ vegan starter kit at PETAIndia.com/VSK .

Milk has been linked to bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis infections in humans.

Monsoon 2020 • PETA India’s Animal Times ® 3

WINNING ANIMALS for

Must-Read NEW BOOKS

For a Moment of Taste

There’s never been a more important time to learn about the destructive impact of the meat, egg, and dairy industries on animals, human health, and the planet. In her new book, For a Moment of Taste , former PETA India CEO Poorva Joshipura predicted a pandemic like COVID-19 – which, like so many other health crises, is linked to the treatment of animals exploited for food. With a foreword written by actor, activist, and PETA India supporter Richa Chadha , the book is a riveting, in-depth exposé of the horrors animals experience as well as animal agriculture’s negative effects on human health and the environment. Poorva also describes the consequences of not changing our current eating habits and trends.

Animalkind

Readers around the globe – including Shilpa Shetty , Sidharth Malhotra , Dia Mirza , and

Jacqueline Fernandez – are celebrating the release of Animalkind by

Ingrid Newkirk , who founded PETA affiliates worldwide. This Amazon number one new release gives readers astounding insights into the fascinating intellectual and emotional lives of animals, while providing helpful tools to show all living, feeling beings the consideration and respect they deserve in our daily lives.

WHAT YOU CAN DO Please visit Amazon.in to order your copies of Animalkind and For a Moment of Taste today.

4 PETA India’s Animal Times ® • Monsoon 2020

Vegan Leather Takes Centre Stage at Lakmé FashionWeek

At Lakmé Fashion Week’s Sustainable Fashion Day, PETA India presented Kanpur FlowerCycling Pvt Ltd with the Best Innovation in Fashion Award for its biodegradable vegan leather made from discarded temple flowers – which would otherwise have ended up in the Ganges, where tannery pollution also runs rampant – called Fleather. The animal leather industry keeps skins from rotting by using caustic, toxic chemicals that not only pollute waterways but also can cause cancer as well as skin and respiratory disorders in humans who work in and live near tanneries. The event also launched PETA India’s new pro-vegan fashion campaign starring actor, activist, and entrepreneur Sunny Leone . Her ads viscerally portray the pain and agony that animal derived leather causes. Cows and other animals exploited for their skins are loaded into severely crowded trucks and sent to the slaughterhouse – sometimes dying en route – where workers slash their throats and dismember and skin them while they’re still conscious. WHAT YOU CAN DO To learn which companies have earned the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo, please visit PETAIndia.com/PAV .

Photo: © Avinash Gowariker

PETA India ,

s Pune Dissection Demo a Hit

Just before National Science Day, a “gutted” PETA India volunteer urged Pune to denounce the dissection of animals and to report to PETA India any cases of the cruel and archaic practice in schools and universities. Many educational bodies have banned the dissection of animals, but we continue to receive complaints from distressed students forced to watch or participate in it. Every year, tens of millions of dead animals are cut open in classrooms around the world, yet studies have repeatedly shown that students learn better by

using humane, digital dissection software, such as ProDissector Frog , BioLab Frog , Digi-Frog , and Froggipedia (an Indian app that Apple named iPad App of the Year). Such superior, modern options save time and money, can be used over and over again, and help protect ecosystems by sparing animals’ lives.

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PETA Saves Chicks From Being Buried Alive SAVED!

Acting on a tip that a poultry farmer and hatchery owner in Paladhi, Jalgaon, district planned to bury chicks alive – including some who were only a day old – over coronavirus fears, a PETA India team sprang into action and rescued 150 birds. They were whisked away to safety and are now safe and sound. Being buried alive is only one of many terrible fates that may befall chickens, who are one of the most abused species on the planet. Those exploited for their eggs are jammed into cages so small that they can’t even stretch a single wing. Those raised for their flesh, called “broilers” by the poultry industry, are crammed into filthy sheds, often with tens of thousands of other birds – and that intense confinement easily leads to the spread of disease.

Chickens are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, which makes heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. WHAT YOU CAN DO Never eat chicken meat or eggs, and please visit PETAIndia.com/Donate to help continue PETA India’s vital rescue work.

Q A

Would eating fish help reduce my risk of developing heart disease?

On the contrary, a study in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology suggests that eating fish might actually raise your risk of heart disease. Because Native populations in close proximity to the Arctic Circle are known to eat a lot of fish, researchers reviewed the data from 10 different studies that analysed their diets and health in both Greenland and North America and compared them with those of non-Native people. They found that Native populations in Greenland had rates of heart disease similar to non-Native Greenlanders, but their life expectancy was 10 years shorter and their overall mortality rate was twice as high. Rates of heart disease among Native populations in North America were similar to – if not higher than – those of non-Native people. Fish contains lots of cholesterol and fat, just as beef does. And approximately 15% to 30% of the fat is saturated – which is lower than the levels in beef and chicken but still much higher than those in most plant-based foods. The flesh of many fish is also loaded with toxins such as mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs).

Neal Barnard, MD, author of Power Foods for the Brain , answers your questions about nutrition and health. DOCTOR in the House

If you’re concerned about heart disease, go vegan – as Dr Kim Williams, president of the American College of Cardiology, and many other medical experts have done. Vegan foods are cholesterol-free and generally low in saturated fat and calories. Forget about fish – instead eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, and other nutritious, plant-based foods.

A Classic Chicken Dish With a Twist … It’s Vegan!

With its creamy tomato sauce and flavourful spices, butter chicken is, sadly, a favourite Indian dish. Now, this classic can be enjoyed by everyone – including people with dairy sensitivities and those who don’t want to kill birds or steal the milk meant for baby cows – thanks to this recipe, adapted from

VeganFirst.com . It’s perfect for a laid-back Sunday dinner – serve it with hot basmati rice, naan, and mango chutney. For more vegan versions of family favourites, check out VeganFirst.com .

© VeganFirst.com

Vegan Butter Chicken

Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS 1 cup vegan curd (try Chetran’s SoyaGurt Dahi) 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste 1 tsp MDH Deggi Mirch red chilli powder ¼ tsp garam masala 1 tsp salt ½ tsp black pepper 2 tsp lime juice

METHOD • In a bowl, add the vegan curd, ginger-garlic paste, ½ teaspoonful of the chilli powder, the garam masala, salt, black pepper, and lime juice and stir well. • Add the vegan drumsticks and marinate for 1 hour. • In a pan over a medium flame, add 1 teaspoonful of the vegan butter and the onions and sauté for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and sauté for 2 more minutes. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for 1 more minute then add the water, cover with a lid, and cook for 10 minutes. • In a separate pan, fry the marinated vegan drumsticks in the oil until crispy then set aside. • Add the tomato mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. • In a wok over a medium flame, add the kasoori methi leaves, green chillies, and remaining chilli powder and vegan butter. Stir in the tomato sauce and sugar and cook for 2 minutes then add the vegan drumsticks. Add the coconut cream and cook until heated through. Serve hot.

2 vegan chicken drumsticks (try Vezlay’s Soya Leg Piece) 2 tsp vegan butter (try Hearth & Heart Natural butter)

1 cup chopped onions 2 tomatoes, chopped ½ cup tomato purée ¼ cup water 1 tsp oil ¼ cup kasoori methi leaves 2–3 green chillies 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp coconut cream

Order Chetran’s SoyaGurt Dahi and Vezlay’s Soya Leg Piece online at Rare Earth – The Organic Store. They're also available from some Nature’s Basket and Reliance Fresh stores.

Monsoon 2020 • PETA India’s Animal Times ® 7

When it comes to teaching future medical professionals the skills they need to save lives, advanced, non-animal methods are the gold standard. The world’s top medical schools – including Harvard, Duke, and Yale – use them, and the Indian government has acknowledged the superiority of such human-relevant teaching tools. That’s why a central government circular prohibits using animals in teaching or to train students. Instead, they must incorporate modern, humane methods such as computer simulations and life-like, high-fidelity human patient simulators that can “breathe” and even “bleed”. However, while Indian undergraduate medical lessons largely eliminated animal exploitation a decade ago, PETA India received complaints that such cruelty continued in postgraduate education. And now, animals are in even more danger: the Medical Council of India’s recent changes to the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, make experiments on animals a mandatory component of postgraduate physiology and pharmacology courses – despite the longstanding central government instruction against their use. PETA India is urging Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to spare animals terrible suffering and give medical students the best training available by requiring the exclusive use of computer-assisted models and other sophisticated, non-animal methods. PETA India Asks Medical Council to CUT THE CRUELTY

© iStock.com/GlobalP

WHAT YOU CAN DO Please politely urge the minister to prohibit animal use in medical education and instead promote modern technology, thus ensuring the highest academic standards in India’s medical schools, and encourage others to contact him, too:

Dr Harsh Vardhan Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Room No 348, 'A' Wing Nirman Bhavan New Delhi 110 011 hfm@gov.in; dr.harshvardhan@gov.in

What Will Your Legacy Be?

Riddhi Kumar knew to contact PETA India when she found a young barn owl who was distressed and weak, and our Emergency Response Team – which is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help animals – swooped in. After spending time in the care of a rehabilitator, the owl recovered and again was able to fly free. We are working to bring about a society in which all animals can live as they were meant to. You can help create that future by making a legacy gift to PETA India in your estate plans, ensuring that we can continue to rescue animals long after you’re gone. You can name PETA India in your will to receive a specific sum of money, a piece of property, or a percentage of your residuary estate (the part that remains after all specific legacies and expenses have been accounted for). Through such a legacy gift, the work that you support in your lifetime will live on in your name well into the future.

Please contact our team at Legacies@petaindia.org or on 022-40727382 for more information. All enquiries are kept confidential.

An owl is saved!

ANIMAL TIMES ® is the magazine that speaks up for animals. KEEP THIS ISSUE MOVING – PASS IT ON!

© Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan