In what came across as a shoddy counter-balancing move, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has once again taken to Twitter to urge states to stop ‘illegal transport and slaughtering of animals’ ahead of the celebration of Eid al-Adha, 2020.
As per a PETA India blog, the organisation has sent out a round of letters to directors-general of police of all state governments and Union Territories, urging them to take precautionary measures to stop illegal transport and killing of animals leading up to Bakri Eid or Eid al-Adha. The letters have also highlighted two points regarding the sacrifice of animals.
This move surely comes in as an afterthought to re-build the credibility it lost after pulling down an anti-goat slaughter poster to please the Islamists and selectively target Hindu traditions, by launched a Rakshbandhan campaign in Ahmedabad featuring a cow urging people to ‘give up leather’ for Rakhi.
However, PETA still does not seem to have mustered the courage to directly urge Muslims to give up meat. Instead, it keeps telling Hindus how to celebrate their festivals. Even in their current campaign, they are asking for stopping ‘illegal’ transport and slaughter, which are already, well, illegal and often attract punishment by the authorities.
PETA’s inability to direct its campaign towards Muslims and asking the community to stop killing animals has been pointed out by many.
Author Shefali Vaidya, against whom PETA had recently launched an ad hominem trolling campaign after she openly called out their hypocrisy and fraud, reminded PETA that they are yet to develop courage to truly stand up for animal rights.
PETA India slammed for its double-standards
Recently, PETA India received a lot of flak for removing hoardings in Lucknow, after Maulanas said anti-goat slaughter hoardings ‘hurt their religious sentiments’. Peta India in a bid to rebuild its tainted image, had, at the beginning of this month, put up ‘Turn vegan’ anti-goat slaughter poster with a picture of a goat, in Lucknow.
The poster predictably riled up a set of influential Islamic clerics who expressed their vehement protest over the banner and asked for its removal. The Islamic clerics asserted that the banner showing a goat was deliberately put up in Lucknow ahead of the Muslim festival of Bakrid to target the minority community. The thought of displeasing a certain section of people was so daunting that Peta India had promptly pulled down the hoarding.
PETA India’s selective activism against Hindu festivals
The fact is that PETA India has always been partial towards a particular community, It has long been known to have selectively target Hindu traditions and customs while giving other religions a free pass.
PETA India’s hypocrisy was further exposed when columnist Shefali Vaidya on Monday took to Twitter to share screenshots from PETA India’s website, which spuriously spoke about encouraging ‘kindness in animals’ amongst Muslims while sharing guidelines on how to slaughter them ‘effectively’. By, advocating veganism to the entire world, and diversely tutoring on how to execute an ‘effective’ slaughter, PETA India has reached completely new levels of double-standards.
Well, however, hard it tries to clean its image, it is a well-established fact that PETA is one such company which has been hypocritical to such an extent that they look more amusing than concerned in their approach towards stopping atrocities on animals in India.
Recently, the NGO had faced the ire of Netizens for its selective and biased campaigning. Soon after removing ‘Turn Vegan’ posters, since it had hurt the ‘religious sentiments’ of Muslim clerics, PETA India had launched a Rakshbandhan campaign in Ahmedabad featuring a cow urging people to give up leather for Rakhi. This had irked the social media users who went all out to then expose the animal rights advocacy group. The needless pontification directed at a Hindu festival that in no way harms any animal had irritated a lot of people on social media.
Earlier, the world’s largest animal rights organisation had on the occasion of Janamashtami, which is a widely celebrated Hindu festival in India, appealed to the people to use ‘vegan ghee’ in place of the ghee made from cow’s milk. According to PETA, cows are harmed while they are milked, while goats are not when they are slaughtered ‘effectively’.
The fact is that PETA India has always been partial towards a particular community. The organisation which otherwise like to maintain a stoic silence during festivals which are celebrated with large-scale animal slaughtering, becomes suddenly vocal when it comes to Hindus and their beliefs.
