When I was growing up in India, the images of happy cows were everywhere. The cows who wandered the dusty streets sometimes wore garlands, symbols of respect placed about their necks by Hindus or Jains. Not that life was easy for them. Overworked bullocks pulled carts through the clamor of city streets, breathing in the stinking diesel fumes, sweating in the searing India heat. Sometimes they collapsed under their burdens, and the drivers beat them with thick wooden sticks to make them rise and stumble on through the chaos.
But there was a remnant of Gandhi’s reverence for life. Today, under heavy Western influence, it has vanished. When I returned to India with PETA colleagues this year, I found a thriving trade in beef and leather that means starvation, thirst, beatings, broken bones and cruel slaughter. There is no single culprit for the suffering: Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jains are complicit in the trade, and the flesh and skin end up as far away as Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe and America.
The cows of India, with their long, curving horns, live side by side with their people. Despite their tremendous size, they are as gentle and tame as family dogs. I approached 1,000-pound bulls who could have crushed me with their great heads and hooves, but who, instead, merely gazed at me with curiosity, as if to say, “Hello. Who are you?” One day, as I walked down a filthy alley, I saw a huge bull who had walked up two steps and was standing half in, half out of a house, watching his family go about their chores. Twenty minutes later, when I returned down the same street, he was still there, blocking the entire entrance, enjoying the company of his people.
But when cows cease to be useful, off they go to auction. We visited the weekly cattle sales in Tamil Nadu in southern India. Several thousand bullocks and cows, tethered in groups of up to seven by strings run through their noses, stood confused and uncertain in a dusty field. The temperature soared to 100 degrees, but there was no water and no shade.
The auction was teeming with men arguing over how many rupees the animals were worth. The buyers were Muslims and Christians purchasing cattle for transport to slaughterhouses, some owned by Hindus, which then export the flesh.
The cows, tense with fear, did not understand why they had been taken from their homes. Many were old and emaciated, their ribs and hip bones protruding. Some were old and sick, heads drooping; some were bloody from beatings by the men who drove them to auction. What broke my heart was their tails, which had been twisted and broken over and over again by the drivers. The joints looked like swollen knuckles, each one broken along the entire length of the tail.
Slaughtering cows is illegal in all but a few Indian states, so the cows are marched over hot, dusty roads for 50 to 100 miles, across state lines, to secret locations where they can be loaded onto trucks and taken to slaughterhouses. It’s a hideous journey. To keep them moving, drivers beat the animals across their hip bones, where there is no fat to cushion the blows. The cows are not allowed to rest or drink. Hungry, thirsty, weary and often lame or ill, many cows give up and sink to their knees. Drivers mercilessly beat them and twist their battered tails to force them to rise. If that doesn’t work, the men torment the cows into moving by rubbing hot chili peppers and tobacco into their eyes.
I cradled the huge head of one old bull in my arms and gently flushed the smear of peppers from his oozing eyes. The abuse heaped on him was pointless as his hip was broken and no matter how hard he tried, he could not move.
Eventually, the cows cross the borders crammed into trucks. Because their importation is illegal, this happens in the dead of night. We were there, along with German videographer Manfred Karremann, to document the terrible loading conditions. The trucks are meant for only five or six animals, but 15 to 20—sometimes as many as 30—are shoved into each one.
Cows must climb over one another to find any space, inadvertently gouging each other with their horns, trampling and crushing those beneath. Horns are broken off and nose rings ripped out.
The trucks careen down twisty dirt roads riddled with potholes, pitching the cattle around, causing more injuries. Inexplicably, some of the drivers are Jains, members of a religious sect so compassionate that devout members avoid stepping on insects.
The morning we visited the Deonar slaughterhouse in Bombay, the temperature had risen to 100 degrees by 10 a.m. Flies swarmed and PETA’s Robert Tappan stepped over congealing pools of blood. A dozen cows lay wounded or sick on the ground. One bull had both a broken horn and fractured leg, but he struggled again and again to stand, moving in circles, until he had no strength left.
Some of the downed cows rested their heads on the bodies of their companions, seeking comfort in the frightening, stinking yard. They looked up with pleading eyes, hoping for a taste of water, the cool comfort of shade or a kind touch. There was no relief, and even though the slaughterhouse veterinarian could see the injuries, he left them to die.
The cows to be slaughtered are beaten in order to force them from the truck, then all four feet are tied together and they are thrown on their sides on the filthy floor. 
Because their flesh is sold to Muslim countries, the slaughter is supposed to be “halal,” that is, done according to Muslim law, , which mandates a quick death. But workers often saw back and forth with dull knives and leave fully conscious animals to bleed slowly to death. Other cows look on as their companions die in pools of their own blood.
If Muslims understood that the India cows are given no compassion in their last wretched days, they could not purchase and consume the flesh that comes out of Deonar and other slaughterhouses.
|
The Constitution of India prohibits the slaughter of cows and calves, and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act mandates kind treatment. It is illegal to beat, kick or overload animals; transport animals in vehicles that cause suffering; deprive animals of food, water and shelter; sell abused animals; and kill an animal in an inhumane manner. The transport and slaughter of the cattle in India violate all these laws, yet they continue unabated. Bribes encourage police officers, politicians, veterinarians and other officials to look the other way.
|
The terrible treatment of the cattle is not just India’s problem. They are slaughtered because of the West’s influence. Anyone who buys beef in Pakistan, Malaysia and the Arab states and anyone who buys leather in Europe and North America may be part of the problem. Please read what you can do.
 |
|
Washington Humane Society veterinarian Ted Deppner traveled to India with PETA’s President Ingrid Newkirk. Writes Dr. Deppner, “I have nightmares to last me quite some time. What disgusted me the most was the way the herders, drivers and transporters moved the cattle from the market down the road to slaughter.  Driving so very fast over roads in horrible condition, causing the cattle to literally gore the cows next to them with their horns. Afterward, the men would kick and prod or drag the cattle to get them off the trucks. The extent of cruelty toward these animals is truly astonishing!”
He adds, “While the cows were being loaded, I could hear the gurgling of one cow choking on her own blood. The rope in her nose had been improperly placed, and with the constant tugging on it by rough handlers, as well as being tethered to her fellow cattle during the 12-hour march, it had ripped through her nose, and blood was pouring down her face.” |
 •Never buy ANY leather. Indian leather is sold worldwide at Casual Corner, Nordstrom, the Gap and other stores under many brand names. Instead, buy nonleather shoes and accessories from companies like Aesop, Pangea and Heartland. Contact PETA for our free leather factsheet, which lists names and addresses of suppliers of nonleather products. (See our contest on page 20 to win a free pair of nonleather shoes!)
•The Gap is aggressively marketing leather—tell them that cowskin clothes are cruel, not cool. Write to Millard S. Drexler, CEO and President, Gap Inc.,1 Harrison St., San Francisco, CA 94105; email: custserv@gap.com;
tel.: 1-800-427-7895.
•Write to India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (c/o Embassy of India, Information Wing, 2107 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20008). Ask him to require that Indian leather companies and the Indian Council for Leather Exports take steps to improve the treatment of cattle used for leather.
|
