“The discussion of animal rights in jallikattu has been misunderstood,” Amala Akkineni, animal rights activist and actor, said at The Huddle here on Sunday.
Speaking via video from Hyderabad, Amala said film stars and other celebrities had defended jallikattu because the film industry was funded by politicians, and the stars did not want to wreck the fortunes of their movies.
“We know that the tails of the bulls are broken, that chilly powder is rubbed into their eyes and they are forcibly fed country liquor. The animal is overwhelmed and does not know what is happening. But now tempers have flown and perhaps, it is not a good time to discuss this. But there will be another time, when the voice of the bull is heard. That discussion will happen in the future, and it’s perhaps best to have that in court,” Amala said.
At the session on “Do animals have rights?”, Norma Alvarez, social and environmental activist, said that legally, the challenge was that the Supreme Court had already spoken on the matter. “What is being challenged in the Tamil Nadu Act is if it directly and deliberately opposed the Supreme Court judgment. That is what the SC has to now look at and resolve,” she said.
Outside the jallikattu argument, the need to protect indigenous species is a significant one. Though the traditional Indian way has been to treat animals as part of the family, government policy has always viewed livestock from a production orientation.
“It is from this emphasis on production that foreign breeds are brought in to supplement indigenous ones. We have a strong culture of pastoralism and agri-pastoralism. But this culture is diminishing, though it is one of the most climate-resilient and low-impact forms of raising animals. In Kutch, where I work, there are buffaloes that have been adapted to the arid climate. They survive on very little water and they graze at night, because it is too hot during the day. There is a very broad range of animals that we should look at preserving,” Abi Tamim Vanak, animal ecologist and conservation biologist, said.
Ms. Alvarez pointed out the logical fallacy of the argument that jallikattu alone would help preserve indigenous species. “Tractors and chemical fertilizers have done more to threaten the breed of indigenous cattle. And then to say I want to use bulls for entertainment in order to preserve an indigenous species is wrong,” she said. The panel titled ‘ Do Animals Have Rights? ’, moderated by Maya Sharma, Resident Editor and Bureau Chief, NDTV, Bengaluru, deliberated on the troubles with the animal birth control (ABC) campaign that was intended to control the stray dog population.
Population control
“ABC has not been working at all. We have started and stopped so many times. And if we don’t control the population, nature will. Right now, there is a canine distemper breakout in Bangalore. That will kill lots of dogs. In Kerala, they are killing eight or 10 dogs in a very cruel fashion. And what that means is that the two or three dogs left behind, will be extremely scared of people and will be prone to attacking humans. And they will reproduce and build a breed of more vicious strays,” Ashwin Sameeran, who runs Enablers, a stray rescue NGO, said.
