Bombay, March 2009 Workshop on Farmed Animals

Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 December 2009 08:15 Written by FIAPO Wednesday, 04 November 2009 08:28

Action Highlights - Action Highlights

Bombay Workshop, Held 8th March, 2009

Animals Used in Food and Fiber, Workshop Report:

On 8 March, 2009, 25 individuals representing 12 animal protection organizations in India met to better understand and bring focus to India’s rapidly growing meat and leather industry.

To our knowledge this is the first such inter-organisational meeting in India to explore the basis for joint work on behalf of farmed animals.

Organised by the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) and the Humane Society International (HSI), the workshop included presentations by the organisers and, additionally Nandita Shah of SHARAN and N. G. Jayasimha of PETA India.

Presenters provided an overview of the status of animals used for meat and fibre in India and the campaigns to relieve their suffering which are currently underway.

In his opening comments, Arpan Sharma of FIAPO noted that Animal Welfare Organisations (AWOs) working for animals across India often work in isolation, unaware of other AWOs with whom the sharing of ideas and support would greatly benefit.

To maximize efficiency, Humane Society International and The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations are trying to link AWOs together to discuss common issues, share information, and learn to work as a team of knowledgeable, up-to-date organizations, rather than scattered solo-ships.

1. Session 1 – An overview of Issues Associated with Consumption of Animals for Food and Fibre

Arpan Sharma shared research on India’s meat and fibre industry—an effort to tally the enormity of the primary, secondary and tertiary, legal and illegal animal consumption industries. The research reports from this session are available at Research Reports.

Arpan cited several weaknesses in this early stage of animal welfare, (and other meeting participants also gave inputs):

• Because statistics have only been created from legal slaughter-houses (1 percent of the total) they
don’t paint a complete picture.

• The OIE does not have, and is currently trying to obtain the actual number of animals slaughtered in
India.

• There is a lack of functioning welfare standards in the meat and fibre industry.

• The Five Freedoms have not been accepted by the Indian government which means that creating solid animal welfare laws for farmed animals is extremely difficult. PETA India has attempted to incorporate the Five Freedoms into the law, but they were opposed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and others.

• Inconsistencies in law interpretation: in some states cows may be called ‘male’ and slaughtered and in some states injured animals can be slaughtered, so people brutally injure their cows in order to legally slaughter them. Farm animal welfare is different from veganism. When Peta did a slaughterhouse training programme, there was huge opposition from the animal welfare community. There needs to be a clear understanding that a farm animal welfare campaign should not be mixed with veganism. One view is that we should push for veganism within the AWOs first, and simultaneously improve farm animal welfare.

• HSI sees these as two sides of the same coin - the main issue with welfare is space, and there isn’t enough land to raise animals humanely, especially with increasing demand, it is focusing on trying to get the high end market to go vegan, allowing more space for animals as demand is reduced.

• Some participants were not comfortable talking about animal welfare – and suggested that maybe different groups could have different aims. The Indian Vegan Society (IVS) felt that we should focus on the reasons why demand is increasing, and also tackle the message spread by the government that milk is good for humans. IVS also felt that we should focus on veganism, and use education to reach our aims. The message should be that one can take steps towards becoming vegan even if it is not possible to become vegan immediately. Education, particularly in school programmes, was also mentioned by others.

2. Session 2 - PETA India presented information about its ongoing campaign on transport and slaughter of cattle in India.

As part of this, PETA described its attempt to help create a fully law-abiding slaughterhouse in Coimbatore. This ended unsuccessfully as the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) whose participation and support was needed to move forward, opposed the attempt at law-enforcement stating that the AWBI’s function did not include inspecting slaughterhouses and reporting law violations, though PETA informed that this is indeed their duty.

PETA’s campaign also included extensive work with the leather industry, convincing better welfare standards by using consumers as leverage. When industry failed to follow international animal welfare standards, PETA encouraged a world-wide ban on Indian leather.

3. Session 3 – Adopting a Vegan Lifestyle

Nandita Shah, a homeopathic doctor, presented her rationale for promoting adoption of a vegan diet as her primary method of promoting animal and environmental protection. Through vegan-cooking workshops and seminars on healthy living through vegan diet, Nandita reaches audiences all over India and even abroad. She explained why she believes that in order to break past an audience’s defensive barrier you must convince them of a personal health benefit they can enjoy through a vegan diet; then they will become more prepared and willing to internalize the compassionate motivations behind a vegan life-style.

4. Session 4 – HSI’s campaign for battery free eggs in India.

Chetana Mirle presented a historic overview of Humane Society International’s Indian cage-free poultry campaign. Chetana explained that poultry farms in India are becoming very similar to the industrial factory farming practiced in the west. A handful of individuals own India’s egg and poultry factories, which means that family run, backyard chicken coops have been almost completely taken over by industrial corporations. Many participants were unaware of the cage-free initiative and learned through Chetana that though opting for a cage-free method may not seem like a very radical step in improving welfare for chickens, HSI believes it is an achievable goal, and therefore will do a tremendous amount of good for the millions of caged chickens in India.

The meeting was interactive and gave every participant a thorough chance at expressing his opinions and queries. Subjects were raised such as the dilemma for animal rights groups regarding promoting ‘humane’ foods. Groups were uncertain whether through promoting “humane” meat, consumers would therefore feel less guilty about eating animal products? “Would that take us towards abolition or stop any further efforts to reduce consumption?” Such discussions allowed the groups to hear other opinions and approaches to the mission.

Moving forward:

it was felt that going beyond the workshop, participants should be able to undertake some action towards ameliorating conditions of animals used as food. Participants and presenters agreed that the poultry campaign would be a good peg for a joint effort by all AWOs, working at their own areas.

Focusing on the poultry industry and chicken welfare was chosen because PETA and HSI both are currently running poultry campaigns at present (PETA’s KFC campaign, and HSI's cage-free campaign.)

On May 4th, some weeks after the meeting, several AWOs organized events for International Chicken Respect Day, including leafleting and media attention demos to spread awareness on the suffering of caged chickens. These actions were posted on the FIAPO Current Actions page and circulated among FIAPO members.