PETA India Animal Times Summer 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 | S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 ANIMAL TIMES

What a Difference Two Decades Make: PETA India Celebrates 20 Years

Delhi

Mumbai

Thanks to our work with the University Grants Commission, students in the life sciences no longer take lives in cruel dissection exercises or animal experiments – which have been banned – and dozens of monkeys and dogs have been rescued from laboratories. Our groundbreaking investigations into the meat and dairy industries have exposed systemic abuse, and thousands of people have pledged to go vegan after watching our landmark video exposé “Glass Walls”. We helped persuade the Central Board of Secondary Education to issue an advisory to all 18,000 affiliated schools, encouraging students and staff to wear canvas shoes instead of leather ones. And our “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo is making it easier than ever to find animal-friendly clothing, accessories, and other products. PETA India rescued 31 formerly abused horses illegally used for “joyrides”, and our concerted campaigns won long-awaited freedom for elephants Mariappan, Sunder, Ram Prasad, and Gajraj, who’d been chained, exploited, and neglected by temples for decades. And that’s just the beginning. PETA India will continue working until humans treat every sentient being as some one , not some thing . Thank you for joining us.

When PETA India began 20 years ago, we had one office in Mumbai with just one employee. Today, we have offices in Mumbai and Delhi and a total of 52 staffers!

Twenty years ago, finding lipstick or laundry detergent that hadn’t been dripped into rabbits’ eyes or smeared onto their raw, sensitive skin required some effort. Merchants freely sold skins taken from crocodiles, alligators, and snakes as if they were just fabric. Dispirited elephants forced to carry tourists or parade for temples were often seen trudging along hot, congested city streets. And many people thought a “vegan” was someone from Las Vegas! But today in India, it’s illegal to test cosmetics on animals and to import reptile skins. It's prohibited to have elephants in Mumbai and several other cities. And restaurants everywhere have added vegan options to meet the growing demand for cruelty-free fare. What prompted these changes? Two decades of dedication, hard work, and creative campaigning by PETA India! With help from our more than 1.5 million supporters, we’ve forever changed the landscape for animals in India – and worldwide.

The Vegan Buzz

© iStock.com/proxyminder

PETA India has been hard at work promoting, awarding, and encouraging vegan eating and enterprises that protect animals, human health, and the environment. We’ve had some big successes, and we’re not too modest to brag about it.

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

© PETA India

Dear Animal Times Reader,

become a global leader in the struggle for animal rights on many fronts.

Sunil Chhetri and Manushi Chhillar Crowned ‘Hottest Vegetarians’

And the ‘Most Vegan-Friendly City’ Is … Hyderabad!

When PETA India founder Ingrid Newkirk was growing up in India more decades ago than she would thank me for divulging, some of her most vivid memories were of the gentle cows and bulls who remain intricately woven into the fabric of Indian life to this day. She recalls seeing cows standing in doorways, placidly watching their families go about their daily chores, and bulls wandering the dusty streets wearing garlands of flowers placed around their necks as a symbol of respect. These animals’ lives were not easy then, and they still aren’t – for instance, many continue to toil long hours hauling heavy loads in the searing heat. Nevertheless, she was taken aback when she returned 20 years ago with a videographer and a veterinarian to document the treatment of cows and bulls on the long road to slaughter. She was dismayed by the heavy toll that Western influence had taken on India’s once-sacred animals, which included beating them, twisting and breaking their tails, and rubbing chilli peppers into their eyes, among other horrors. The unforgettable footage captured during that groundbreaking investigation into India’s illicit leather trade sent shockwaves around the world and inspired Ingrid to found PETA India. She knew that if Indians could see that they were unintentionally contributing to cruelty to animals, they would make changes. And she was right. Since PETA India was formed in 2000, we have achieved unprecedented victories and helped India

India was among the first countries to ban animal testing for cosmetics as well as the import of animal-tested cosmetics. PETA India and our affiliates have achieved enormous progress for Ingrid’s beloved cows and bulls, too – helping persuade clothing companies around the world to use vegan materials instead of leather, exposing and stopping cruel bullock cart races, and replacing the use of bullocks with humane and efficient tractors for hauling sugarcane, kerosene, and other goods. After 20 years, we’re just getting started, and with your support, we’ll keep working to preserve Gandhi’s legacy of respect and reverence for animals for the next 20 years and beyond.

Former Miss World Manushi Chhillar ’s beauty isn’t just skin deep. PETA India’s “Hottest Vegetarian” demonstrates her

Hyderabad is leading the way in healthy, animal- and eco-friendly living, earning it PETA India’s “Most Vegan-Friendly City” Award. Popular places such as The Terrassen Café and the city’s first all-vegan store,

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compassion by eating only fruits, vegetables, grains, and other vegetarian foods to save animals while staying fit and healthy. Sunil Chhetri – India’s highest scoring footballer – earned PETA India’s “Hottest Vegetarian” title for deciding not to eat any more animal flesh, eggs, or milk. He credits animal-free

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Plantarium, keep caring customers coming back.

Frozera’s delivery ice cream and sweet treats from Cookie Queen and The Lush Glaze tempt taste buds. Smart Alec Alternative

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Deli offers fresh vegan fare and a play area for companion animals. And groups like Hyderabad Vegans organise potlucks and other fun events.

Map locator: © iStock.com/VladSt • Hyderabad silhouettes: © iStock.com/Yurkaimmortal

foods with improving his digestion and recovery time, and since going vegan, he says, “I feel as healthy as I will ever be.”

Since PETA India was formed in 2000, we

For all animals,

Living vegan gets easier (and more delicious) all the time: from vegan cheese, pizza, ice cream, curd, burgers, and “meats” to whole vegan restaurants and cookbooks, animal free food has never been PETA India , Food Awards

s Vegan

Pamela Anderson’s Vegan Plea to Prime Minister Modi

Dr Manilal Valliyate

have achieved unprecedented victories and helped India become a global leader in the struggle for animal rights on many fronts.

India has a special place in Pamela Anderson ’s heart – she adopted her beloved dog Pyari off the streets of

Mumbai – which is why the PETA US honorary director penned a letter to vegetarian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to serve vegan food at government events to help curb climate change, which is wreaking havoc in the country. She pointed to India’s rich agricultural history of environmentally friendly foods, such as pulses and soy, for easy alternatives to destructive, animal-derived ones. ©

more accessible and delectable in India. Winners of PETA India’s Vegan Food Awards include GoodDot , GoodDot Fried Crispies Gurber

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PizzaExpress , Papacream , Nutriva , Vezlay , Goodmylk , Rare Earth , and Bombay Cheese Company . Visit PETAIndia.com to read the full list and learn more.

Our investigation into bullock cart racing revealed bullocks were pulled by their nose ropes, dragged, and beaten with nail-studded sticks. The Supreme Court has now banned such races, and PETA India has prevented more than 100 illegal events, sparing numerous bulls a great deal of torment. COURT RULING VICTORY!

PETA INDIA’S ANIMAL TIMES ® Volume 19, Number 2

All portions of this publication not accompanied by the © symbol are not copyrighted and may be reproduced freely. PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA) INDIA PO Box 28260, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049 (022) 4072 7382 • (022) 2636 7383 (fax) Info@petaindia.org • PETAIndia.com

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

PETA India launched a nationwide billboard campaign pointing out that cows’ milk should be labelled with the non-vegetarian brown dot because the animals who produce it are often killed for their flesh.

WINNING ANIMALS for

Order Your Copy of For a Moment of Taste

For over 20 years, Poorva Joshipura , a PETA Foundation senior vice president and member of PETA India’s board of directors, has led game changing campaigns and investigations to expose and end cruelty to animals while promoting vegan living. In her thought-provoking new book, For a Moment of Taste: How What You Eat Impacts Animals, the Planet and Your Health , she offers first-hand and other evidence of the ways in

which the meat, egg, and dairy industries in India abuse and kill animals, harm human health, and damage the environment. Infused with personal anecdotes, Poorva demonstrates why it’s time to choose healthy, eco- and animal

friendly foods over fleeting tastes. The book is available from Flipkart and Amazon and may also be found at your local bookstore.

Kids Promote Vegan Eating to Protect Their Future

Pune Vegan Is ‘Volunteer of the Year’

Virat Kohli Is PETA India , s ‘Person of the Year’

In honour of Children’s Day during World Vegan Month, a group of young PETA India supporters fromWiseRoots World School dressed up as chicks and calves to urge Pune residents to fight climate change and protect their future by going vegan. Young people today know that raising and killing animals for food is responsible for nearly one-fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions and that going vegan is the easiest, most effective way to reduce environmental destruction. Everyone who goes vegan also saves, on average, nearly 200 animals from death each year.

As the captain of India’s national cricket team, vegetarian Virat Kohli is a busy man. But he still finds time to help PETA India stop cruelty to animals, earning him our “Person of the Year” Award. Over the years, he’s promoted adopting animals from shelters instead of buying them from breeders or pet shops, urged the government to uphold the ban on the use of bulls in races and other performances, and petitioned for stronger penalties for violators of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. He also had a horse free wedding ceremony and went to bat for Malti, an enslaved elephant forced to give rides at Amer

Pooja Rathore is a vegan force to be reckoned with. She assists our Emergency Response Team by coordinating veterinary care for animals in need, volunteers for multiple vegan outreach groups, and takes care of community animals. She’s also participated in numerous PETA India demonstrations, including our “Eat Green, Go Vegan” one, during which she was painted green to encourage Pune’s residents to go vegan for the environment. With more than 10,000 Instagram followers, Pooja uses her platform to highlight animal rights issues and organise climate strikes. She also rescues injured animals and is studying for her master’s degree in nutrition so she can be an even stronger advocate for vegan living. WHAT YOU CAN DO Animals need your help. Please visit PETAIndia.com and sign up to become an activist, intern, or volunteer today.

Animal Superheroes Party at Comic Con

Fort, after a group of American tourists saw and recorded eight men violently beating her. WHAT YOU CAN DO Respect animals – don’t eat them. Get started on a more compassionate path by visiting PETAIndia.com/VSK to order a free vegan starter kit.

PETA India Youth made a splash at this year’s Comic Con, attracting crowds to our information booth inviting them to “Be a Superhero for Animals” and to play “Hero or Villain”, a game that asks players to decide if the human in each image shown is helping animals (“hero”) or hurting them (“villain”). The game was a hit with comic fans. And in addition to enjoying free pro-animal merchandise like wristbands, badges, and stickers, visitors signed PETA India’s pledge to go vegan.

4 PETA India’s Animal Times ® • Summer 2020

Summer 2020 • PETA India’s Animal Times ® 5

Workshop Stresses Humane Treatment of Retired Elephants

Vegan Abundance at Rare Earth If you can’t find what you’re looking for, create it yourself. That’s how India’s first all-vegan online grocery store, Rare Earth , came to be. When Shammi Sethi first went vegan, he found reading labels and tracking down vegan products in traditional supermarkets tedious. So he decided to put everything vegan under one roof. Today, Rare Earth is a one-stop all-vegan shop, carrying fresh curd, “meats” and “milks”, sweets and snacks, health and beauty products – you name it. Last year, Rare Earth Café opened its doors, and it has quickly become a popular vegan hub. PETA friend and Game of Thrones star Jerome Flynn has even eaten there! Find out what all the buzz is about: try these two delectable recipes, adapted from Rare Earth's menu, and check out RareEarthTheOrganicStore.com .

Many captive elephants have endured decades of abuse before finally being rescued and moved to a sanctuary. These intelligent, empathetic, family-oriented animals are kept constantly chained with spiked hobbles on concrete flooring and beaten with ankuses, clubs, and nail-studded sticks – all just to make them give rides to tourists or perform demeaning stunts. PETA India partnered with the Uttarakhand and West Bengal forest departments to ensure that elephants’ lives in retirement would be free from pain and stress. Held at the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand and Jaldapara National Park in West Bengal, the workshops featured presentations on handling elephants humanely with a “hands-off” approach. Attendees included officials from the forest departments, the Wildlife Institute of India, zoos, and veterinary colleges as well as veterinary students, mahouts, and representatives of major wildlife-protection non-governmental organisations. Among the speakers was internationally renowned elephant behaviourist Margaret Whittaker , who discussed protected-contact management, a modern, compassionate method designed to improve elephants’ welfare and keep humans safe through the use of positive reinforcement. In this system, which has been employed in other countries for nearly two decades, handlers operate from a position of relative equality, not one of dominance. Instead of ankuses, ropes, or chains, barriers (such as metal screens and bars) are put in place to separate elephants from humans. Handlers elicit cooperation from the elephants through positive reinforcement in the form of treats and simply ignore self-protection non-compliant behaviour, rather than meting out punishment.

Margaret Whittaker gives a demonstration on the trimming of overgrown nails to vets and other staff from the elephant camp at Corbett Tiger Reserve.

© iStock.com/subodhsathe

Biryani Makes 8 servings

Rogan Josh Makes 2 servings

“All captive elephants can

benefit from this system, which uses rewards – not intimidation, abuse, or ankuses – to manage animals.”

Ingredients 1 pkg Chetran’s SoyaGurt Dahi 2 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste Pinch salt ½ Tbsp turmeric ½ Tbsp red chilli powder ½ Tbsp garam masala Lime juice, to taste 2 pkg Vezlay Soya Chikka ½ cup caramelised onions ½ Tbsp cooking oil 1 Tbsp cumin 1 Tbsp cinnamon 2 whole cloves 2 bay leaves ½ Tbsp cardamom powder 2 cups basmati rice 2¼ cups water

Ingredients 2 cinnamon sticks 2 bay leaves 4 green cardamom pods 2 whole cloves 1 tsp salt 1 tsp asafoetida 1 pkg Vezlay Soya Chikka ½ cup mustard oil or other refined oil

© Gauravmasand | Dreamstime.com

– PETA India CEO Dr Manilal Valliyate

1 Tbsp red chilli powder ⅓ tsp saffron, optional 1½ cups water 1 Tbsp fennel powder 2 tsp ground ginger 2 tsp cumin

Q A

Are carbohydrates fattening, and should they be avoided?

No and no. Here are the numbers: carbohydrates – whether from potatoes, rice, bread, or anything else – have only four calories per gram. Fats have nine calories per gram, making them more than twice as calorie-dense and, by extension, more likely to lead to excess weight. So if you slather butter on your toast, grate cheese over your pasta, or put meat on your pizza, the animal fats contain a lot more calories than the carbohydrate-rich foods they were added to.

Method • Add the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves, salt, asafoetida, and soya chicken to a large pan. Add the oil and fry until heated through. Drain the excess oil. • Add the chilli powder, saffron (if using), and the water. Cook for 1 minute, or until the liquid has a reddish tinge. • Add the fennel powder and ginger. Cook over medium heat until thickened into a gravy. • Stir in the cumin and simmer for another minute. Serve hot.

Method • In a wok, combine the dahi, ginger-garlic paste, salt, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala, and lime juice. Stir in the soy chicken and top with the caramelised onions. Cover and let marinate for 1½ hours. • Heat the oil in a pressure cooker then stir in the cumin, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, and cardamom powder. Add the rice and water, cover, and cook for 2 minutes. • Spoon the cooked rice over the soy chicken mixture. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook for 10 minutes over high heat. Serve hot.

Studies show that people who eat the most carbohydrates – especially those found in whole, natural foods like legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables – have a lower risk for weight gain. Low-carbohydrate diets, though faddish, are actually associated with heart disease, stroke, and even early death. For weight loss, the best options are getting regular exercise and eating vegan meals – especially those incorporating healthful complex carbohydrates. Skipping the animal-derived ingredients helps you avoid truly fattening foods.

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

Order Vezlay’s Soya Chikka online at Rare Earth Organic Store, Amazon, or BigBasket. It's also available in some Nature’s Basket and Reliance Fresh stores.

Summer 2020 • PETA India’s Animal Times ® 7

Breakthrough for Bleeding Horses

Every day in factories across India, horses, mules, and donkeys recoil in terror as workers jab them with needles and extract their blood to produce antitoxins and antivenins. For more than 100 years, the main method of producing treatments for diseases like diphtheria has been to inject equines repeatedly with the toxin and then withdraw huge amounts of their blood in order to collect the antibodies that their immune system produces in response.

Conditions at the blood-letting facilities are grim. The animals are confined to filthy, severely crowded enclosures, and they suffer from anaemia, diseased hooves, eye abnormalities, infections, parasites, and malnutrition. But now, thanks to the PETA International Science Consortium , scientists have developed cruelty-free, human-derived antibodies capable of blocking the bacterium that causes diphtheria. The project, carried out at the Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany, will be life-changing for the animals who have long been exploited as involuntary blood donors.

The Science Consortium is now working with its research partners to ensure that these human antibodies, which can be made using cells in a laboratory, are developed into medication that will be used to treat this menacing disease more reliably and safely, without causing a single animal to suffer. WHAT YOU CAN DO Visit PETAIndia.com/EquineSerum to learn how you can help prevent horses, mules, and donkeys from being abused and exploited.

What Will Your Legacy Be?

Basanti was auctioned off and slated to be sacrificed – until PETA India intervened. We worked to rescue her, and she now spends her days with other goats in a sanctuary.

PETA India is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help animals. We also campaign to bring about a future in which no sentient being faces a sacrificial knife. 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 like Basanti 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 a legacy gift to PETA India, 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.com or on 022-40727382 for more information. All enquiries are kept confidential.

Basanti – rescued!

© Aneesh Sankarankutty

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

© Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan