Monkey Business
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Vol XXXVII No 1 Spring 2014 Journal of Beauty Without Cruelty - India An International Educational Charitable Trust for Animal Rights Inside: Eggs Recipes Gadhimai Ship of Theseus Monkey business Beauty Without Cruelty - India 4 Prince of Wales Drive, Wanowrie, Pune 411 040 Editorial Tel: +91 20 2686 1166 Fax: +91 20 2686 1420 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.bwcindia.org Child soldiers in butchers’ game In this issue ootinoru kunjadu means, “A little Editorial …………………………………………………………… 1 companion lamb” The Ship of Theseus ………………………………………… 2 in Malayalam. But it may Around the world ……………………………………………… 5 have a deeper meaning. Monkey business ……………………………………………… 6 A scheme by this totally Help stop Gadhimai mass misleading name was animal sacrifice in Nepal …………………………………… 8 started by the Kerala Fact, not fancy: Eating embryos ……………………… 10 Ministry of Agriculture’s Egg to chick …………………………………………………… 11 Animal Husbandry Vegan recipe …………………………… inside back cover Department, in 2013, to encourage students Beauty Without Cruelty to rear goats. This to generate income without is grateful to hard work. Neither the and the Bhansali Trust reason nor the outcome impart desirable values for sponsoring this issue of in children – in fact, they are contrary to Indian culture, which usually by contributing ` 50,000 each. knows right from wrong. The cynical project Publisher Diana Ratnagar Beauty Without Cruelty Chairperson, BWC - India was implemented by is a way of life which causes Editor Ashoke Dasgupta Meat Products of India no creature of land, sea or air Designer Dinesh Dabholkar (MPI), which sold terror, torture or death Printers Mudra students four-month 383 Narayan Peth, Pune 411 030 old vaccinated lambs valued at ` 2,500.00 © is printed on paper at a subsidised rate of free of animal substances is the copyright of ` and published every Beauty Without Cruelty - India. 1,000.00 each. The spring (February), Unauthorised reproduction in any ` 1,500.00 subsidy per summer (May), monsoon (August) manner, without written permission animal was borne by the and winter (November) from the publisher, is prohibited. Kerala Government, using Cover: Rhesus Macaque. Photo: © Neeraj Mishra, www.indianwildlifeimages.com taxpayers’ money. Beauty Without Cruelty Astonishingly, the sold to the students as scheme only encourages Animal Welfare Club of companions. MPI claims goat rearing – but goat- St. Thomas’ High School it is encouraging goat- rearing is cruel if goat- (Kallara, Kottayam rearing but this is a cruel, killing is the objective. District) selected 100 unethical scheme in which BWC feels it is disgraceful students from Classes V to children are encouraged to dupe school children by X to avail of this diabolical to lose respect for animal exposing them to animal offer, pressing the relative lives over time. exploitation schemes. A innocence of children into Having to sell their communication to this murderous adult service. companions for slaughter effect has been sent by us Under the agreement, is bound to affect pupils’ to the Chief Minister of MPI would buy the goats impressionable minds. Kerala. Long-range meal plans. Photo Screenshot from the MPI website. courtesy: Shashi Kumar. back after eight months From guilt to disrespect Children can be taught of their companionship to and lack of reverence for more impactful activities the children. They would life: that is the road by to earn money in adult life pay the market price, or which violence and crime — if they have any spare live body weight, for each thrive and develop. time after attending to goat, meaning the going This information was their formidable course price of its flesh, skin and obtained by BWC under loads. These may include bones per kilogram. the Right to Information growing their own vegetables. It goes without saying Act. Surprisingly, St. E-Mail: [email protected] that MPI would buy the Thomas’ High School sees goats back to kill them, no cruelty in this scheme. though the goats were They, and the MPI, say the Spring 2014 1 Beauty Without Cruelty guiding schoolchildren in conscientious animal rights The Ship of making posters on animal advocate: how to get well issues. He is a petitioner in (when one falls seriously ill) Theseus a case where he has taken without consuming allopathic by Ranjit Konkar a pharmaceutical company medicine, a product of modern movie plot featuring to court for conducting pharmaceutical practices that a person who has a experiments on animals. include the routine sacrifice stand on animal The director takes the bold of hundreds of animals (to step of showing visuals of rights has never been which the author can testify rabbits being subjected to the exhibited by the Indian film as an eye-witness) to test infamous Draize Test where industry before. the medicines on, through their heads are immobilised The writers of “Ship of in an Elizabethan collar, their systematically and forcibly Theseus” have dared break eyes kept forcibly open, and inducing the disease in that trend and, in the the animals (who are in no process, lent a visibility to way causes of the diseases animal rights issues that only afflicting humans) without commercial Hindi cinema (naturally) obtaining their can lend. consent, then systematically This movie may have been killing all the animals to test expected to be a non-starter their bodies for the effect of with audiences nationwide, the drug. He opposes this raised as they are on chicken from the bottom of his heart. tikka masala, antibiotics and The dilemma lies in the pain-killers. However, it is rather unpleasant choice he reported to have run to packed halls and boasted young has of choosing between a college students among its medicine that will save his viewers, such was the story- life, but has been obtained writer’s and the director’s by unethical means which he ways of weaving the plot. A poster for the film. Photo has spent a lifetime opposing, The film’s climax is the courtesy: impawards.com. and a principled refusal of the confluence of the three unethical product, which may shampoo poured into their simultaneous sub-plots lead to his death. eyes. For that scene alone, woven by the script writer This choice is one that a the director deserves our and brought to a common fate person who does not claim gratitude for showing the at the end. It is one of these ordinary filmgoer what goes to follow an animal rights sub-plots that has to do with on in testing labs. philosophy may not relate animal rights. to. His priorities are clear, The plot develops further into a The protagonist of the second situation where the teetotaller his mind unburdened by of these sub-films is a Jain muni contracts cirrhosis of the fate of animals (rodents, muni (monk) who is, to the liver, a surprising disease too). However, ironically but the surprise and delight of for him to have considering unsurprisingly, it is an issue animal rights sympathisers, it is mostly associated with on which most animal rights alcoholics. The muni goes proponents would decide through the dilemma that by favouring their personal plagues (or should plague) the safety. 2 Spring 2014 Beauty Without Cruelty Animal rights reasoning proponent may respond to to evade death; or the most proves difficult for the this situation in one of the serious ailment but not the monk’s friends to appreciate following ways: lesser. This is actually a more though they understand Very, very rare: He fearlessly practical alternative, invoking it, academically, with takes death on and does not the principle, not in purity difficulty. Their reactions compromise on his principles. but, in degree. For example, of bewilderment, disbelief, This is the only option with one might take the crucial scorn, frustration, and integrity. He is free to try medicines and ignore the resignation are shown alternative remedies. His pain-killers, which are only realistically (once again, as objection is not to medicines for relief, not for a cure. the author will testify, having but to medicines tested on Another option on this path is personally observed these in animals. The world of drug- to take the required medicine others). The story proceeds free medicines is open to and compensate in some with the muni facing a life- him (assuming those have way to the animal world for and-death situation and not been tested on animals). the animals sacrificed by the audience’s engagement That world includes, to the medicine consumption. with it is in discovering how the best of the writer’s The patient could choose he deals with the situation. experience and knowledge, to serve time at an animal The decision he makes is treatments like naturopathy, shelter; stop using animal unambiguously on one side of ayurveda, homoeopathy, products like leather which the issue. and acupuncture. There may also involve killing animals; be others he is unaware of. donate to research on non- Since the lasting effect of It could include recourse to animal research on cures that sub-film is the message psychosomatic experiences to the ailment for which he it leaves in audience’s minds like meditation and yoga. The took the medicine, etc. This on the ethic of avoiding muni in “Theseus” is shown is the path of atonement allopathic (animal-tested) to take some local ayurvedic and repentance through medicines, and since that kadha without compunction. voluntary service. There is message is derived from the Seeing his life at risk he also the path of matching muni’s decision, the author succumbs to his human and sacrifice: he could think of wishes the script-writer had natural desire to continue renouncing something dear not taken so clear a black-and- living and compromises to him and that is his by right, white stand.