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Is India A Fertile Ground For Cow Moos And Cow Muse? - Malathi Raghavan Malathi Raghavan is doing her Ph.D. in Veterinary Epidemiology. She decided that Epidemiology would be the field that would use, incorporate, and validate her formal academic pursuits, Veterinary Medicine and Conservation, and also her varied other interests, such as social issues, human-animal interactions, and communication.

"Nordstrom has made the compassionate decision to immediately stop producing products made from animals killed in India or China. This decision is based on information supplied by PETA from its investigation." --From an update on the web page of People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA).

With PETA involved in the 'Cow Transport Investigation' in India, I can't help but wonder, "Why India? (And China?) Why now?" Slaughterhouses are notorious not only in India, but also in many other parts of the world. I have personally been inside a few in another country (former USSR) as a veterinary student during practical training hours, and have come back at the end of seemingly unreal days to my dorm-room, carrying the stench of death in my hair and on my clothes, transporting dried blood on the soles of my shoes, and sporting a distant, dazed expression in my face to symbolize the mental disconnect to the scenes of the day. The scenes included restless, weary cattle in regular waiting pens, sick cattle in the sick pens along with the injured ones lying in pools of blood under the summer sun, or if winter, then in the freezing snow and ice. Summer flies would buzz around the near-dead animals and give company while the other animals kept away from one of their own because of the smell of blood and death. The waiting period would be for two days, which was time enough for the gastrointestinal tract to be emptied. Inside the slaughterhouses was, in a way, better because after the quick but noisy slaughter, the mechanically slit carcasses devoid of their heads hang large, red, and strangely upside down from the ceiling, but at least lifeless and free from pain. And if 'Toxin' by Robin Cook can be relied upon not to stray too far away from fact, then the inside of slaughterhouses, even in the US, are only slightly better.

So why target India? -a country whose leather industry probably brings in foreign revenue (not to mention the local jobs they create, although the jobs come with their own occupational hazards). However, according to PETA, the country's leather industry is also the world's most cruel. So a two-month moratorium has been placed on the leather export industry. The Indian Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has agreed to halt all purchases of hides originating at Deonar in Mumbai. This, I am sure, would definitely affect the local economy and the local people. And since the "CLE recognized its responsibility to try to stop the suffering" PETA is planning to "step back for 60 days to see if progress can be made. Focus may now shift to possible tourist boycotts of places with the worst record, such as Tamil Nadu, a favorite Western destination where border guards take bribes every day to allow shipments of cattle from auctions to cross into Kerala and Karnataka," says PETA's Ingrid Newkirk.

What puzzles me is that India is not the only country in the world that disregards animal welfare by failing to enforce laws meant to protect animals (and humans). So what is the need to step into India and monitor a powerful and successful industry? It seems to me that the answer lies in the recent goings-on in the country. India is a large country with a unique situation. Although it cannot afford to prioritize 'animal welfare' (more so 'animal rights') it definitely portrays harboring a special relationship with its cattle. It is not uncommon to come across people from other parts of the world wondering if cows are worshipped in India. In fact, it is not uncommon to come across somebody in India who does 'worship' a cow. More often though the cow is only a highly revered animal in many parts of the country (owing to the country's agrarian history and dependence on milk and milk products). This image has been at least lightly substantiated in my mind by the activities of some of the groups inside India in the recent years.

During the unfortunate period when mad cow disease was the news in Britain, there were reports that members of a major sociopolitical group in India wished to import all the herds that were meant to be slaughtered, and subsequently care for them. A few years ago my friend in Delhi got her beef delivered to her at home 'under-ground' because it was apparently dangerous for the butcher to sell beef (and for her, to buy) openly. And around the same time, I read an article in a popular newsmagazine about a certain group calling for the ban of cattle-slaughter in the country. Now, such drastic animal welfare activism is not without problems. If cattle cannot be slaughtered in India (a country relying on dairy farming and use of draft animals), the country's stray cattle population would increase even more dramatically. To the cow, the gift of extended life would not be blissful.

Farmers the world over, are not engaged in farming because of their altruistic nature, even if they are attached to individual animals under their care. Principles of economics must be obeyed. Poor, subsistence farmers cannot afford to feed animals that are past their production days. Cows past their prime that cannot be slaughtered (and thus cannot bring the farmer another meager source of compensation) will be turned out onto the streets. India already has a substantial feral population of starving, unhealthy cattle adapting to life in the streets, competing for leftover food in the garbage piles along with malnourished urchins, and slowing traffic. Feral cattle in rural India cause yet another unfortunate problem-they compete with India's dwindling wildlife population for resources. To find a solution to this moral dilemma one should assess whether the nation wants to save a cow's life only to see it abandoned, turned out, and half-starved or whether the nation should (strive to humanely) slaughter an animal consistent with a widespread economic model that benefits the farmers, relieves the streets of feral population, and the wildlife of competition.

More recently, in January of this year there was a special drive against cow slaughter in Gujarat. The state government's decision followed a three-day state-level ``sankalp shibir'' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which served as a campaign for the protection of the cow and its progenies from the thriving, illegal slaughterhouses. (Why illegal in the first place?) ``Thousands of cows are still being illegally slaughtered in the country only to feed the people in the Arabian countries,'' so said the RSS chief, Mr.Rajendrasinghji. The drive would also include checking of illegal transportation of cows and their progenies through rail and road transports outside the State.

So there you see. My imagination now has no bounds. So many shortsighted cow-sympathetic activism has already been going on in India before PETA stepped into the country with its cause. Is it possible that PETA has identified a country like no other--a country, where some state governments, some internal parties, and also some spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama and Swami Satchidananda (who had written to the prime minister of India in May to put an immediate end to the illegal and abusive treatment of animals as part of the campaign launched by PETA) would not hesitate to lend a political hand, if not become outright political cohorts? PETA even got Mr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, to write "for a nation that prided itself for its vast store of compassion and love, its treatment of cattle was shocking." Not only would such associates help PETA advance its cause, image, philosophy of animal rights, and organization membership & affiliation substantially, but also they would not require PETA's tactics to be as extreme, left wing, and radical as they are in the west. What an irony! PETA could theoretically win a battle for animal rights easily in a country where human rights are frequently violated. But in doing so, they would not be far from the image the west has of them, that of an anti-human animal rights group.

So is India fertile enough to handle the interest of PETA in its cows? Will further issues come up once the cow transport investigation ends? Will the legacy of PETA on the current mood in the country (or is it the other way around?) be consistent with the position for animal welfare or with that of animal rights? To distinguish animal welfare from animal rights, I quote below the American Veterinary Medical Association's (AVMA) position (with slight modifications): Animal welfare is a human responsibility that encompasses all aspects of animal well being, including proper housing, management, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, responsible care, humane handling, and, when necessary, human euthanasia Animal rights is a philosophical view and personal value characterized by statements by various animal rights groups. Animal welfare and animal rights are not synonymous terms The philosophical views and personal values of animal rights advocatesare incompatible [with] the responsible use of animals for human purposes, such as food, fiber, and research conducted for the benefit for both humans and animals.
(AVMA Executive Board, 1994)

In closing I can only say that I hope that animal welfare and social welfare are equally weighed, that reason prevails over emotions, and that long-term planning wins over short-term, self-righteous attitudes in the subcontinent. And you can be sure that I will be following the developments keenly.

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