The Pongal festival brings with it the polemics on the practice of jallikattu every year, and this year it will be no different. The massive protests on Marina sands three years ago might have enabled a lift of the ban on this rural sport. Yet, it does no justice to the conduct of this maddening and barbarous sport, wherein many youths lose their precious lives. In the guise of ‘taming’, bulls are kicked, punched and dragged on to the ground. A bull will not run out of the vaadi vaasal into the jallikattu arena unless it is provoked. Provoking involves biting the tail, poking rods into the animal, and inserting chillies in their anus and eyes. The tail is the extension of the vertebrate, and is like pulling the animal by the spine. Thankfully, jurisprudence has taken a new turn now. Animals’ ability to feel emotions are now being recognised and they are viewed as sentient beings. Their status in the eyes of the law is changing. It will not be too long before animals have their own rights and are no longer subservient to humans.
R. Sivakumar,
Chennai
