It’s time to ban Jallikattu, PETA to TN Health Minister

Alarmed and upset over the ever-increasing number of human and animal casualties associated with jallikattu (bull taming events), the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a global initiative working for the rights of animals, has written a heartrending letter to the Tamil Nadu Minister for Health C Vijaya Bhaskar.

Nikunj Sharma, PETA’s India representative who wrote the letter, joined the Minister and his family over the recent bereavement suffered by the death of Komban, the star fighter bull owned by Vijaya Bhaskar.

Komban met with an accident while it was forced through the vaadivaasal(narrow gateway leading to arena) and died in the arena itself last Sunday at Puthukottai. The bull’s horns hot against the fence which led to its instand death. The Minister had said that the bull was a member of his family and he was shocked over the death.

Nikunj Sharma, who expressed grief over the death of Komban has pleaded with the Minister to ‘support a ban on jallikkattu in honour of  the dead bull and in response to the activity’s rising death toll’. “Since the passage of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, in January of last year, at least 24 humans and seven bulls (but likely more, as the animals' deaths aren't usually recorded), including your own, have died and nearly 2,500 humans and numerous bulls have been injured, proving that jallikkattu is inherently cruel and dangerous,” Sharma has said in the letter. The PETA leader has reminded the Minister about the motto of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu which States that health is wealth and only a healthy nation can be a wealthy nation. “If health is indeed wealth, families in your State are becoming poor when their young men—husbands and sons—who may be their sole or primary earners, are killed in jallikattu. A ban on this cruel activity would prevent countless injuries and deaths,” Sharma reminded the Minister.

Sharma has also highlighted the fact that the disregard for bulls have degenerated  into disregard for all animals . “Now, illegal jallikattu events and races involving foxes are frequently organised in Tamil Nadu. Foxes are Schedule II animals protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, yet they are being captured from the wild illegally, gagged, and cruelly tied so that men can chase them.

Although the  Supreme Court of India banned bullock cart races in a May 2014 judgment and the  Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur banned tonga (horse cart) races in judgments in 2016 and 2017, illegal rekla races and horse cart races are rampant in the State because there is poor enforcement of these court orders,” he writes in his letter to Bhaskar. The PETA has included all relevant documents and evidences to substantiate the illegal jallikkattu, fox race, rekla and the cruel treatment meted out to animals.

Sharma reminded the minister that he had been quoted as saying "I have lost a close family member, a child,” in response to Komban’s death. “ A good father would take steps to ensure that his other children, whether human or bull, don't suffer the same fate. Because you're the Health Minister, we hope you'll agree that Tamil citizens and bulls should not continue to be injured and killed in this cruel activity. For these reasons, we request that you support a repeal of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017,” Sharma  has written I the letter.