Just ads cannot propogate animal rights

McDonalds recently announced that they have “begun to explore the `feasiblity’ of buying pig products from suppliers who raise the animals in less cruel conditions”. They claim to have taken steps to improve the lives of hens by increasing cage size, and eliminating `debeaking’. As a result of this announcement PETA made a counter announcement. “..we are declaring a one-year moratorium on our campaign against McDonalds, effective immediately” said the letter to Mc’s CEO Jack Greenberg. PETA had launched a massive anti-Mc campaign organizing more than 400 demonstrations during last year’s World Day of Action. As Mc shifted to “Killing with Sympathy”, PETA appreciated the effort. It is obviously gratifying to kill hens that live in more space than those in cramped cages.

As animal rights organisations and activists rave and convince all and sundry about going veggie, other aspects of animal rights and the infringements of those rights have fallen in the backyard. Consider this: India has the worst cattle transport industry in the world. Indian villages have more and more cattle-driven vehicles that pull hundreds of kilos of freight everyday. Nearly 13 million cows are slaughtered every year in India. And more than a billion chicken killed too. Stray dogs too are no exception to rabid diseases and human wrath. But the common refrain is: kill the street dogs.

It’s, however, not an error of judgement committed in the full knowledge of things. It’s simply our way of perceiving animals. Prostrating to a few of them does not snatch away the fact that we are still harming them. As tens of thousands of Ganesh idols with his favourite rat were sent away into the waterways, large numbers of fish died of paint intoxication.

There is a logical question here: if we pray to cows and treat them with the reverence of a mother, why do we treat them like slaves for transport, leather and bevy of other `services’? The practical does not care for the religious, really speaking.

Animal rights activists have a long way to go. Transforming non-vegetarians to vegetarianism makes for good publicity but does little else. Animal rights is more than a lecture on animal rights. Nor is it a matter of trying to describe how an animal feels when its throat is being slit. Nor is it a matter of showing gory slides of a butcher doing his job. Non-vegetarians will ask in defence: “Don’t plants breath? Aren’t we killing plant lives by turning veg”.

Treating animals with respect is something that needs to be taught in the school. Ad campaigns are hardly a substitute.