‘Injured Bull’ Protests Against Jallikattu Outside Indian Embassy

For Immediate Release:
25 January 2012

Contact:
Elisa Allen +44 (0) 20 7357 9229 ext 243; [email protected]

London – Led by a costumed “injured bull”, PETA members stood outside the Embassy of India today with signs reading, “Save India’s Reputation: End Jallikattu”, in English, Tamil and Hindi. The protesters are calling on the Indian government to enforce the national ban against using bulls as performing animals. Despite the ban, the Madras High Court recently permitted Tamil Nadu to continue jallikattu, a cruel and dangerous “sport” in which terrified bulls are kicked, punched, jumped on and dragged to the ground – and in which human participants are often injured and even killed. Photos of the protest are available here and here.

“Jallikattu is a black mark on India’s reputation”, says PETA’s Poorva Joshipura. “These events are illegal – they violate the ban on using bulls in ‘entertainment’ and are completely against the spirit of India’s animal-protection laws, which prohibit beating, kicking and torturing animals.”

Similar protests will take place around the world this week. On 30 January, the Madras High Court will reconsider the exemption for jallikatu.

In jallikattu, bundles of money or other prizes are tied to the horns of a bull who tries to escape as villagers chase him. PETA India’s investigation into five jallikattu events in 2011 revealed that the terrified bulls are painfully dragged by nose ropes, surrounded by mobs of taunting people who send the animals into a frenzy, goaded with sticks and pushed and wrestled to the ground. Last year, hundreds of human participants were injured, and many were killed. In one four-day period last January, 215 people sustained injuries during jallikattu events, 154 of whom were spectators. Two people died.