Members from the India chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Friday, May 12, tied up three pregnant women under the summer Sun. However, it was all consensual and all for a noble cause: To spread awareness of the sufferings of milch cows.
And the timing could not have been better: The demonstration took place two days before Mother's Day 2017. This was deliberate because PETA India also wanted to highlight the plight of these cows, who are kept pregnant and made to bear calves over and over again so more milk can be made from them.
What's more, the three pregnant women who took part in the protest are also PETA India members: Amna Naqvi and Anita Gulati from Delhi, and Neha Singh from Mumbai. They told International Business Times, India that PETA India was conducting such demonstrations throughout the country, and they had volunteered to come to Bengaluru to advocate veganism, which calls for non-consumption of cow milk or any of its products.
They explained: "Cows and buffalos are kept in extreme conditions in some dairies, where they are tied so tightly that they cannot move. They are often impregnated in the crudest of manners, and when a male calf is born, it often gets cast aside because it is of no use to the industry. It is tied far from the mother — often with a short rope — so that it cannot escape."
They also said that the milking process itself is painful for cows because of the manner in which machines are used. "The machines squeeze out much more milk than a calf would normally drink. This leads to sores on cows' udders, and even torn capillaries. Even otherwise, the cows are in a lot of pain and stress," they said.
And their efforts seemed to be bearing fruit to some extent. Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens is a busy place, and people stopped for a moment to see what was happening, and then ask around when they did not understand.
PETA India member Ayushi Sharma would then explain to them, as she did to IBTimes, India in a statement: "Mother cows and buffaloes make milk for their babies, but greedy humans steal it. Male calves are considered worthless by the dairy industry and are typically abandoned, left to starve or sold for slaughter. There's no better gift we can give mother cows and our own bodies on Mothers' Day than to go vegan."
