I Love Cats. But...

I have already written how organizations like PeTA and Blue Cross are double-crossing the cultural/religious/personal rights of individuals and communities. These are the groups pushing to ban Jallikattu. They went to courts to get humans killed and maimed by stray dogs. They are behind the protests against Eid sacrifices. Now they have stricken again. This time members of the Nari Korava tribes are the victims of these "animal love-makers".

I myself have kept many cats and I love cats. They make adorable pets. Almost all members of  my family accept a feline pet over any other pet. I have personally rescued many kittens from drainage pits, barbed wires etc. But that should stop there. I should not behave like the so called "dog lovers" who are offended by Chinese (Yulin) Dog Meat festival, but want millions of cattle slaughtered to feed their dogs. My love for cats stops with me. I have no right to force my opinions on others. There are superstitious people who say that cat is a bad omen. Should I get offended by that too?

According to various reports from TV channels and news sites, the Blue Cross of India have taken law in to their hands and "captured" 3 Nari Korava men for "cruelty towards animals". Reason? The Nari Korava men were catching feral cats (possibly to eat, which is part of their food habits). Where this insanity will stop? Sadly, our Nari Korava brothers don't have Facebook activists who can write lengthy conspiracy theories that "PeTA is a foreign funded organization that is set to eradicate native cat breed and introduce foreign breeds" like they have done for bulls. But I have few questions on this aspect.


1. All these organizations regularly euthanize animals and they run in public money. (They forced me to pay money to take a rescued cat in, very humane indeed!) Will they publish the number of animals in and out of their facility transparently?

2. Will they also get offended if a cat eats a rat? If rat is natural food of cat, then meat is natural food of humans. They should not get offended by humans eating meat.

3. Will they also protest against eradication of flies and mosquito? Don't those insects have right to live? What about plants? What these people are feeding their animal brothers?

4. Blue Cross vaccinate dogs for rabies. Why they are not respecting the rights of rabies virus? If they consider dog life is more important than virus life then the same logic can be applied like this. "Human life is much more important than dog life".

5. Who are they to decide which stray animals can be killed and which cannot be? What is morally correct is subjective and changes with time and region. Killing dog for food may sound repulsive to some while for someone else it may be their favorite food since childhood.

6. They claim they want all animals happy. Have they conducted any survey among the animals they keep? How they are so sure that what they do is best for animals?

Some valid reasons to take action:

1. If someones pet has been captured or killed, action can be taken on that, provided the pet remained in the premises of its owner or accompanied by the owner and didn't pose a threat to anyone else. Killing a dog or any other animal in self-defense should not be a crime. This line of reasoning can be extended to plucking a flower from neighbors' garden.

2. Killing or capturing wild animals or endangered species can be counted as crime. But wait, that too includes even trees and plant life.

3. Slaughtering animals in unsuitable places can be prevented. This is purely in grounds of hygiene and for regulating slaughter. Not for anything else.

4. An economical and sustainable approach can be taken to reduce over-hunting or over-fishing or over-exploitation of resources. People who violate this can be punished.

5. No one should be punished for killing the following animals. Animals which they themselves have grown, that have been properly bought with money or other means, that are feral/stray, in self-defense, to prevent spread of diseases, to keep the environment safe and clean etc.

Some points to ponder:

1. Humans evolved from other primates just 2 lakh years back.

2. Humans domesticated cows, cats etc only within last 15,000 years. (Before that there were no such animals! Dogs were not domesticated at first and they just evolved along human hunters some 40 to 27 thousand years ago.)

3. Humans were hunter-gatherers for good part of their history. Just the most recent 5% (10 thousand years approx. out of 2 lakh years) of human history we started agriculture.

3. Without eating meat, we might not have evolved as humans.

4. Without humans domesticating, these animals will be extinct within few generations.

5. Agriculture causes more extinctions and environmental damage than sustainable hunter-gatherer cultures like those of Nari Koravas. So Blue Cross and PeTA should first try to ban agriculture.

New Source:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Cats-of-Tondiarpet-narrowly-escape-gypsy-soup-get-mew-lease-of-life/2016/08/17/article3583010.ece

Leave The Bulls Alone!

The the common bulls of Tamil Nadu are classified along bears, panthers, tigers etc and hence Jallikattu is technically banned. Wow! Kerala can go ahead with its elephants, which are actually wild animals in every sense. But Tamils should not touch the bull. The bulls of Tamil Nadu are selectively bred for their strength and endurance. As an agrarian society, Tamils relied upon bulls for ploughing and drawing carts from prehistoric times. You can't say that selectively bred and domesticated animals are "wild" by any definition. Also, if bull is wild then how cows can be allowed to be kept in farm and their milk to be sold? Can we sell tiger milk?

Unlike bull-fights of Spain, where the bull is actually killed, Jallikattu actually ends with just holding a bull for certain seconds or certain count of jumps. Usage of liquor, torture devices etc are non-native practices and they should be monitored and stopped. But to stop the event itself is far-fetched. Are we going to ban cricket due to gambling? Also regulations can be made to ensure audience safety. Instead of taking such rational and simple steps, organizations like PeTA are forcing government to ban the event itself.

On the other side there are people who are crying that there is a corporate conspiracy to kill the native breed. This also seems to be an overkill. So these people are saying that same PeTA which wants to ban milk and leather industry in the West wants to bring foreign breed cattle here in India! Also some Facebook/Twitter posts by these conspiracy theorists claim that PeTA is silent about beef but protests Jallikattu. In reality PeTA is actively protesting against all forms of meat from chicken to beef. They will surely protest against goat/rooster sacrifice in rural temples. They have already protested against Eid sacrifices. Please go through the links below.

http://www.petaindia.com/blog/celebrate-life-vegan-eid/ - PeTA against Eid
http://www.petaindia.com/issues/animals-used-for-food/milk/ - PeTA against milk
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-environment/ - PeTA against meat
http://action.petaindia.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=111&ea.campaign.id=2856 - PeTA in action
http://www.petaindia.com/blog/victory-animal-sacrifice-banned-at-nepals-gadhimai-festival/ - PeTA against Hindu animal sacrifice

From above links, it is clear that PeTA is a militant and stupid organization that wants to push its version of morality, disregarding the sentiments and traditions of native people. But the conspiracy theorists selectively portray that PeTA is only against Jallikattu and trying to bring other breeds of cows. This nonsense also takes religious and racist tones in some posts. If you people are silent about other activities of PeTA, then the price you pay for it will be a ban on Jallikattu. Are you ready to fight PeTA in all fronts? Then we can get Jallikattu back!

We either look it as a conspiracy by West/NGO/Corporates or we see it as animal cruelty and act of barbarianism. Both are not exactly true. The truth is some where in the middle.

PeTA, which protests against everything from KFC to cow's milk, is often ignored as a fringe group. But that fringe group already has a lot of impact in our everyday lives. They want to save stray dogs at the cost of road users and children's lives. They want to portray meat eaters as criminals, rapists etc. They want to portray traditional foods like fish, poultry, lamb etc as unhealthy. They want to ban fishing, farming of animals, leather, wool, testing drugs on animals and the list goes on! All these have a direct and enormous impact on our lives. Yet they are deceptively hiding the facts and portray themselves as people for protecting animals and a group that is fighting against cruelty.

From hate speech to scaremongering hoaxes, PeTA has tried its hands on many "below the belt" tactics with the public. And with politicians and bureaucrats, they cheat, bribe, threaten or lobby with people's money against people's interest. This organization without any help from corporates can do such dirty jobs and I think this group itself is a corporate! So what we need to do is to identify such groups, isolate them and ban them. One such group is Greenpeace, which our government rightly identified and banned recently. PeTA should face the same fate.

Some people are cherry picking PeTA's campaigns to support some of their views and care less about what PeTA is doing in other issues. For example, some people who are opposing meat, support PeTA thinking that they are actually helping. But they care less about PeTA's stand on milk. How many Indian vegetarians are ready to give up milk? If you support PeTA, think twice. Check out their motto and modus operandi in all issues and then decide if you want to really support them.

So to conclude, the fight is not only towards Jallikattu ban. Tomorrow it may be a ban on animal sacrifice in temples or ban on camel slaughter during Eid. So for everyone's interest, let us fight these inhuman organizations like PeTA, AWB and other such elements that cause too much trouble in the society.

Update: Central Government has made amendments to allow Jallikattu in the law, but the decision has been challenged in court!

Jallikattu

Jallikattu:

First, let me make it clear that I don't support or oppose Jallikattu. My opinion on it is neutral. I don't watch it and I don't participate in it. But still, I have some opinions on the same because it is singled out and criticized for no good reasons.

"Jallikattu", for those who are not familiar, is a traditional Tamilian sport where bulls are fought by young men. This is much similar to the bull fights of Spain (only foreign imports are "great" for our people). It is conducted in days following to Pongal celebrations (harvest festival of Tamils). These type of tradtions exists in almost all cultures.

But in recent years, there are voices against Jallikattu, and I also support some of the opposing views. For example, drugging the bull to increase it ferociousness, conducting the competition without safety measures and thus resulting in injury of audience. But none of these reasons can be used to stop the event itself. We can just regulate the practice. A government representative can inspect the bulls and other safety measures taken and give approval for Jallikattu.

But the other reasons these people give are silly and sometimes outrageous. Below are some of the claims and my refutation to the same.

1. Bulls are hurt in the sport
My Response: How many other animals are injured and killed everyday for various reasons? As far as I know, many other animals are treated worse. Example from lovebirds in your backyard to elephants in temples. These bulls are cared and maintained in good conditions and they live a better life compared to other bulls. I have personally seen the special treatment they receive.

2. Bull is an endangered species
My Response: This is also a lie. And even if there is a grain of truth, then stopping Jallikattu will result in extinction of bulls. As tractors had replaced the plowing and cars had replaced bullock carts, the need for bulls are just to impregnate cows. Only some bulls used in Jallikattu and bullock cart races are the only remaining bulls apart from those farm bulls. How can stopping Jallikattu increase the number of bulls?

3. Bull is a wild animal
My Response: Bull is a domestic animal. Even wild animals like elephants, birds like peacock are kept in temples. None is opposing those things. But when it comes to bulls, they claim that bulls are wild animals. Does that mean we all are drinking milk from forest?

4. Jallikattu results in death/injuries
My Response: So is the F1, bike races, martial arts etc also results in deaths and injuries. Indian government spent billions in F1 race but deny Tamils to conduct Jallikattu. Why? Where those protests against F1 and other races? I don't support people dying. But we have to ban all such sports. We should not single out Tamils and common people while allowing rich corporate sports like F1.

5. It is very old sport, time to move ahead
My Response: I don't have any problem in this view. But this not only applies to this sport. Some games like running race and swimming are even older. Don't we have them in Olympics now?

So in my view, there is no need to ban Jallikattu. Regulating the sport is sufficient. But the calls to ban Jallikattu seems to be plain discrimination towards Tamils.