$JES 921 Book of Compassion Reverence For All Life Reference Book

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu, Pravin K Shah
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

Page 37

5.- CRUELTY TOWARDS INDIA'S HOLY ANIMALS
The animals frequently gore one another or break their pelvises when forced to jump from the trucks. Some suffocate inside boxcars. Thousands of others are surreptitiously herded overland-often without food or water. If they collapse from exhaustion, herders break their tails or throw chili pepper and tobacco in their eyes to make them walk again.
The campaign against the practice is attracting support from many animal-activist celebrities. Paul McCartney, Brigitte Bardot, Steven Seagal and Nina Hagen took part in an international day of protest two weeks ago (second week of May 2000), in their home countries. "My heart breaks for the misery endured by the entire mother cows and their calves who have become throw-away in today's India," McCartney declared.
The $1.6 billion Indian leather export industry is feeling the pinch. Companies such as:
Gap and its subsidiaries Banana Republic and Old Navy have banned the use of Indian leather in their garments.
The British Shoe Company Clark's announced last week that it would review the purchase of products made from Indian leather.
PETA's list also includes Florsheim, Nordstrom, Casual Corner and other retail chains.
"It's a wake-up call to India's leather industry," says PETA's Indian campaign coordinator Jason Baker. "If it doesn't do something soon to stop the cruelty against cows, there will be no leather industry left."
India's leather barons are worried that the protests will cripple exports to the West. Nearly 4,000 tanneries and leather-goods factories depend on the export trade. The industry employs around 1.7 million people; nearly a third of who are women.
"The campaign is going to affect us, no doubt about it," says Mohammed Hashim, chairman of the Council for Leather Exports. He feels his tribe is unfairly targeted. "We are only scavengers," he says. "We take skins sold by slaughter houses." Moreover, he adds, 90% of the hides' use are from buffalo, goats or sheep. His organization has appealed to exporters to use only leather from animals that have been killed humanly.
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
37