'If You Wouldn¡¯t Eat A Dog, Why Eat A Chicken?': PETA Questions Meat-Eaters' Speciesism On World Meat Free Day
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has brought in World Meat Free Day, observed on 15 June every year, by erecting billboards in various cities calling out meat-eaters' speciesism.
This includes cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is the world's largest animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia. PETA India, based in Mumbai, operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.
Reason behind the billboards?
The Guwahati High Court's Kohima bench on June 2nd, 2023 had quashed the ban on dog meat announced by the Nagaland government in the State back in July 2020.?
The Nagaland government had in 2020 put a blanket ban on the commercial import, trading of dogs and selling dog meat in markets and dine-in restaurants.?
Following the public outrage over the ban reversal, which again allowed dog meat to be sold legally in Nagaland, PETA decided to erect billboards calling out meat-eaters' speciesism.?This refers to a bias in favour of some species over others.?
Meat eaters' Species-ism?
Initially set up in Guwahati, Delhi and Mumbai, the billboards show a dog and a chicken with the question, ¡°If you wouldn¡¯t eat a dog, why eat a chicken?¡±
The campaign stated that both dogs and chickens want to live. The PETA India Manager of Vegan Projects, Dr Kiran Ahuja, said, ¡°Dogs don¡¯t deserve to be rounded up and tricked to their deaths so that humans can eat them but neither do chickens, goats, pigs, or any other animals.¡±?
PETA thus attempts to make a simple point via these billboards that people disgusted by eating dogs should question why they consider it acceptable to consume chicken.
Last month in Guwahati, a dognapping video had gone viral. It showed a group of unknown men luring street dogs with food and then swiftly shoving them into a car. A reason behind such dognapping is related to dog meat eating.?
Going vegan?
Eating meat and other animal-derived foods has been linked to heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, and obesity, while rearing and killing animals for food has been linked to a multitude of zoonotic diseases, including SARS, bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, HIV, and likely COVID-19: PETA said.
Through this campaign, the organisation encourages people to go vegan, mentioning a United Nations report that a global shift towards vegan eating is necessary to combat the worst effects of the climate catastrophe.? ??
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