Ingrid E Newkirk took some time out to speak with Anu Gulmohar about her life's work as the Founder and President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
Meet Ingrid. A single child, she was extremely fond of the dog she
grew up with, and considered him to be her brother. “He and I went everywhere together. We’d go to see our grandmother and both of us would get car-sick at the same time, and they would have to stop the car and let both of us out! We sometimes slept together, in my bed or in his big wicker basket. I knew what he was feeling and he knew what I was feeling,” she recalled to me. And then her family moved to India. She remembers the first time she ever ran to the rescue of an animal. Nine-year-old Ingrid saw a trembling bull, pulling a heavily loaded cart. As he got slower and slower, the owner pulled up the bull’s tail and rammed a stick into him. “The bull bellowed, but instead of running, which the man wanted him to do, the bull collapsed. Then the man got down from the cart and began beating the bull on the street. I ran as fast as I could, and even though I was just a little girl, I was completely outraged and grabbed the stick to stop him fr
om beating the bull. Then people came and took me back home,” Ingrid remembers. Her one regret: “I don’t know what happened to that bull in the end. And I’m sure it couldn’t have been good. I never forgot it because I know there are so many bulls in the same situation.”
Today, the world knows Ingrid E Newkirk as the Founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and PETA affiliates worldwide. After having championed several causes of animals rights and proclaiming loud and clear across the world her organisation’s slogan – ‘animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment,’ – she recently returned to India to put an end to cruelty to working bulls. In Mumbai, bullocks are used to transport kerosene, and while on September 30, 2008, the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies banned their use for this purpose, it remains to be implemented. On November 12, 2010, Ingrid donated a diesel-powered "auto rickshaw" – fitted with an oil tank and provided free of charge by Piaggio – to the owner of a bullock-drawn cart in a ceremony near the Sewri Railway Station. The weary bullock was sent to a sanctuary operated by PETA's Animal Rahat rescue programme in Sangli. “The bullocks are really in slavery, they are being tyrannised,” said Ingrid. “
Today, I saw a bull unhitched from his cart while his man had gone to have lunch. The bull had a sore the size of a teapot on his hump, all red, oozing. The owner was going to return and put that wood shaft back on his hump, on that completely open sore. When they finish, what is the ‘thank you’ that they get?” cried Ingrid. “They’re put together in one truck and taken to the slaughter house. When they get to the slaughter house, it’s so horrific. They stand in their own blood, and they watch everybody else in front of them have their necks slit. There’s no kindness, they shove them down to the floor. They break their shoulder while they’re cutting their neck. What is this? This gentle, thoughtful animal, who’s already been castrated with no anaesthesia, who’s already had a ring put inside his nose, the yoke put on his back… it’s a horrifying life with a terrifying death in the end. Yet, it’s Nandi! We call them Gods! In a village in Jabalpur, a few days ago, I met a family who loved their bull and the grandm other cried because their bull was put down because he had a cancer and was in pain. And I said ‘why can’t everybody be like you?’ They loved that bull and they had a picture of themselves with the bull, and they had done what was right for the bull. The bull they have now is in beautiful condition. They don’t overload him, they don’t beat him,” said Ingrid, making a point that whilst the bulls are openly abused in the streets, there is a part of India where the Nandi is dearly loved and respected too.
“It’s illegal to have bulls pull oil carts. We may donate more auto-rickshaws. We thought, let’s kick it off, give it a headstart, and see how it goes from there. We’re working with the Ministry, we’re talking to the union, the union’s talking to the bull-cart owners, we want to talk to the petroleum people and say, ‘it’s illegal, it’s wrong, it’s a mess, it needs to change. Let’s do it now. Here’s a headstart’,” explains Ingrid.
Working to protect animals since 1972, Ingrid’s undying enthusiasm has led her organisation to valiantly fight to make right the several wrongs committed against animals. While her most satisfying campaign in her career remains stopping all car companies in the world from using animals for car crash tests and instead opting for robot-controlled mannequins, there have been numerous milestones in her career. “We do a lot of other work in India,” says Ingrid. “For example, we’re working to get lions and tigers out of the circus and that’s already successful. We’re very worried about the leather industry, because it’s a co-product of the meat industry, and again the manner in which the animals are killed is atrocious. The leather industry will not take any responsibility, so we do tell people, ‘don’t buy leather, don’t eat the animals, don’t wear the animals.’ Cosmetics or any household product tested on animals, in four months, will be illegal in the whole of Europe. In these tests, they pour the chemicals, shampoos, the oven cleaners, in the rabbit’s eyes, down the dog’s throat. In India we would like the same kind of arrangement. Exotic skins are a bit of a problem here too.” And just as celebrities around the world have supported the work they do, helped spread awareness about the cruelty suffered by animals, Indian stars too have been working with PETA. “It’s fine to be in a movie and everybody loves you, but do you have a heart? We have John Abraham from the beginning. He says, ‘Open the cage, let the birds fly free. Don’t keep birds in cages.’ Raveena Tandon helped us with the leather campaign. All the celebs help us with the 'Go Veg' campaign. When they speak, people listen. And they know how to act. They look good in the commercial; some of them are very funny and some of them are very beautiful, but all of them are beautiful inside,” says Ingrid.
Vegetarianism is among PETA’s pet projects, and several celebrities have come out to support this cause. While the slogan ‘Let vegetarianism grow on you’ is as eye-catching as the ladies decked up in leaves, we wondered if the campaigns worked for their own employees too. Are they all vegetarian? “Oh yes! They’re vegan! We don’t require it for people coming in, but once they come in and see what’s going on; they taste the delicious food, they know they won’t miss anything. We had this beautiful chocolate birthday cake with vanilla frosting last night and it was all vegan. And today we had banana flavoured soya milk. They realise that they’re healthier, and they’re not hurting animals in any way. I’ve hired meat-eaters and they’ve become vegans very quickly!” clucks Ingrid happily.
Ingrid doesn’t believe PETA needs to get as aggressive as Greenpeace to drive home their point. Yet she’s quite sure that there are many things still to do. “We’re still too small! We need everybody’s help.
We need volunteer help, we need money, we need more stars! We need every single person to take the veg pledge, and we’ll help them with the vegetarian starter kit, everything. The journey has been a steady growth, there are more young people coming in. But we need to grow more,” insists Ingrid.
Reinstating animals to their rightful place in the world, Ingrid perhaps revealed her life’s philosophy best as she spoke about her relationship as a child with her family dog. “I’ve always felt a part of the animal kingdom. I think we’re all animals, we’re all flesh and blood, and we all feel pain and joy and fear and loneliness and love, and we all want to be with our families. It’s all the same.” How long will it take for everyone to realise this? Your guess is as good as mine.
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Meet Ingrid. A single child, she was extremely fond of the dog she
grew up with, and considered him to be her brother. “He and I went everywhere together. We’d go to see our grandmother and both of us would get car-sick at the same time, and they would have to stop the car and let both of us out! We sometimes slept together, in my bed or in his big wicker basket. I knew what he was feeling and he knew what I was feeling,” she recalled to me. And then her family moved to India. She remembers the first time she ever ran to the rescue of an animal. Nine-year-old Ingrid saw a trembling bull, pulling a heavily loaded cart. As he got slower and slower, the owner pulled up the bull’s tail and rammed a stick into him. “The bull bellowed, but instead of running, which the man wanted him to do, the bull collapsed. Then the man got down from the cart and began beating the bull on the street. I ran as fast as I could, and even though I was just a little girl, I was completely outraged and grabbed the stick to stop him from beating the bull. Then people came and took me back home,” Ingrid remembers. Her one regret: “I don’t know what happened to that bull in the end. And I’m sure it couldn’t have been good. I never forgot it because I know there are so many bulls in the same situation.”
Today, the world knows Ingrid E Newkirk as the Founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India and PETA affiliates worldwide. After having championed several causes of animals rights and proclaiming loud and clear across the world her organisation’s slogan – ‘animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment,’ – she recently returned to India to put an end to cruelty to working bulls. In Mumbai, bullocks are used to transport kerosene, and while on September 30, 2008, the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies banned their use for this purpose, it remains to be implemented. On November 12, 2010, Ingrid donated a diesel-powered "auto rickshaw" – fitted with an oil tank and provided free of charge by Piaggio – to the owner of a bullock-drawn cart in a ceremony near the Sewri Railway Station. The weary bullock was sent to a sanctuary operated by PETA's Animal Rahat rescue programme in Sangli. “The bullocks are really in slavery, they are being tyrannised,” said Ingrid. “
Today, I saw a bull unhitched from his cart while his man had gone to have lunch. The bull had a sore the size of a teapot on his hump, all red, oozing. The owner was going to return and put that wood shaft back on his hump, on that completely open sore. When they finish, what is the ‘thank you’ that they get?” cried Ingrid. “They’re put together in one truck and taken to the slaughter house. When they get to the slaughter house, it’s so horrific. They stand in their own blood, and they watch everybody else in front of them have their necks slit. There’s no kindness, they shove them down to the floor. They break their shoulder while they’re cutting their neck. What is this? This gentle, thoughtful animal, who’s already been castrated with no anaesthesia, who’s already had a ring put inside his nose, the yoke put on his back… it’s a horrifying life with a terrifying death in the end. Yet, it’s Nandi! We call them Gods! In a village in Jabalpur, a few days ago, I met a family who loved their bull and the grandm other cried because their bull was put down because he had a cancer and was in pain. And I said ‘why can’t everybody be like you?’ They loved that bull and they had a picture of themselves with the bull, and they had done what was right for the bull. The bull they have now is in beautiful condition. They don’t overload him, they don’t beat him,” said Ingrid, making a point that whilst the bulls are openly abused in the streets, there is a part of India where the Nandi is dearly loved and respected too.
“It’s illegal to have bulls pull oil carts. We may donate more auto-rickshaws. We thought, let’s kick it off, give it a headstart, and see how it goes from there. We’re working with the Ministry, we’re talking to the union, the union’s talking to the bull-cart owners, we want to talk to the petroleum people and say, ‘it’s illegal, it’s wrong, it’s a mess, it needs to change. Let’s do it now. Here’s a headstart’,” explains Ingrid.
Working to protect animals since 1972, Ingrid’s undying enthusiasm has led her organisation to valiantly fight to make right the several wrongs committed against animals. While her most satisfying campaign in her career remains stopping all car companies in the world from using animals for car crash tests and instead opting for robot-controlled mannequins, there have been numerous milestones in her career. “We do a lot of other work in India,” says Ingrid. “For example, we’re working to get lions and tigers out of the circus and that’s already successful. We’re very worried about the leather industry, because it’s a co-product of the meat industry, and again the manner in which the animals are killed is atrocious. The leather industry will not take any responsibility, so we do tell people, ‘don’t buy leather, don’t eat the animals, don’t wear the animals.’ Cosmetics or any household product tested on animals, in four months, will be illegal in the whole of Europe. In these tests, they pour the chemicals, shampoos, the oven cleaners, in the rabbit’s eyes, down the dog’s throat. In India we would like the same kind of arrangement. Exotic skins are a bit of a problem here too.” And just as celebrities around the world have supported the work they do, helped spread awareness about the cruelty suffered by animals, Indian stars too have been working with PETA. “It’s fine to be in a movie and everybody loves you, but do you have a heart? We have John Abraham from the beginning. He says, ‘Open the cage, let the birds fly free. Don’t keep birds in cages.’ Raveena Tandon helped us with the leather campaign. All the celebs help us with the 'Go Veg' campaign. When they speak, people listen. And they know how to act. They look good in the commercial; some of them are very funny and some of them are very beautiful, but all of them are beautiful inside,” says Ingrid.
Vegetarianism is among PETA’s pet projects, and several celebrities have come out to support this cause. While the slogan ‘Let vegetarianism grow on you’ is as eye-catching as the ladies decked up in leaves, we wondered if the campaigns worked for their own employees too. Are they all vegetarian? “Oh yes! They’re vegan! We don’t require it for people coming in, but once they come in and see what’s going on; they taste the delicious food, they know they won’t miss anything. We had this beautiful chocolate birthday cake with vanilla frosting last night and it was all vegan. And today we had banana flavoured soya milk. They realise that they’re healthier, and they’re not hurting animals in any way. I’ve hired meat-eaters and they’ve become vegans very quickly!” clucks Ingrid happily.
Ingrid doesn’t believe PETA needs to get as aggressive as Greenpeace to drive home their point. Yet she’s quite sure that there are many things still to do. “We’re still too small! We need everybody’s help.
We need volunteer help, we need money, we need more stars! We need every single person to take the veg pledge, and we’ll help them with the vegetarian starter kit, everything. The journey has been a steady growth, there are more young people coming in. But we need to grow more,” insists Ingrid.
Reinstating animals to their rightful place in the world, Ingrid perhaps revealed her life’s philosophy best as she spoke about her relationship as a child with her family dog. “I’ve always felt a part of the animal kingdom. I think we’re all animals, we’re all flesh and blood, and we all feel pain and joy and fear and loneliness and love, and we all want to be with our families. It’s all the same.” How long will it take for everyone to realise this? Your guess is as good as mine.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
IIPM announces Anna Hazare Fellowship
GIDF Club of IIPM Lucknow Organizes Blood Donation Camp
Watching porn video is not a crime
Why your wife or girlfriend seems "off sex" of late?
A Healthcare Issue: Private hospitals' efficiency questioned
Katrina Kaif: A British Indian Actress Born on July 16, 1984
Domestic violence has been a silent relationship killer since time immemorial.
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
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