Next month, thousands of bullocks, ponies, and horses in India will soon be forced to walk and run as far as 150 miles, hauling carts full of families and goods to the annual Chinchali Fair. Along the way, some of them will collapse from exhaustion, injuries, dehydration, and despair. Others will try to soldier on, enduring injuries from the heavy yoke, increasing lameness, and the sting of the whip.

Animal Rahat, an organization of veterinarians and relief workers funded by PETA, plans to set up stations along the route to and from the four-day fair to bring some measure of relief to animals in distress—and the group needs your help. 

The attention that each animal will receive from Animal Rahat may prove crucial. The veterinarians will bandage wounds, provide water and food, adjust or replace harnesses and straps that are causing pain, demand rest for those who are faltering, and give medical treatment to animals who would otherwise lack the most basic care.

What You Can Do

Have you ever had someone offer help at a moment when you needed it most? Making a gift to Animal Rahat is the perfect way to pay it forward—and with the fair only weeks away, now's the time!

Every year, thousands of people from all over the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka travel to the village of Chinchali to attend the annual fair celebrating the goddess Mayakka Devi. Entire families pile into carts pulled by bullocks, horses, and donkeys for what can be a two-day trip across hundreds of miles. The animals often suffer from dehydration, wounds, and lameness, and some even collapse from the strain.

Animal Rahat, a working-animal relief program supported by PETA, has provided aid and emergency veterinary care to the animals in years past, but this year, under the direction of Dr. Manilal Valliyate, it went a step further and chartered buses to transport villagers to the fair in order to give the hardworking animals a long-overdue rest.

Animal Rahat's buses were a huge success—nearly 600 people took advantage of them.

To help animals along the route to the fair, Animal Rahat deployed four relief teams, including a full-time veterinary team at the busiest rest station, a veterinary team at the fair itself, an on-call emergency veterinarian for the entire route, and an education team that discussed proper animal care with animal guardians.

Along the road to Chinchali, Animal Rahat set up aid stations at which animals could eat, rest, drink water, and receive veterinary care.

Animal Rahat posters displayed at the fair warned about the dangers of hitching together animals of different species and sizes, urged people to replace nose ropes with "morkees" (halters), and discouraged people from whipping animals.

Many bullocks showed signs of severe stress, including drooling and staggering.

Molasses was given to bullocks, who are often chronically malnourished, in order to meet their immediate energy requirements.

Animal Rahat staffers urged fairgoers to provide their animals with water and to allow them to rest frequently.

Animal Rahat's veterinarians estimate that they treated hundreds of bullocks and horses for dehydration and injuries—but by providing bus transport, hundreds more animals were spared from having to make the grueling trip at all.

Written by Alisa Mullins