The ever increasing number of casualties due to Jallikattu (bull taming) in Tamil Nadu has made international organisations and animal rights activists to take up cudgels on behalf of men and animals. With the death toll in this year’s Jallikattu touching 15, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a global organisation working for animal rights, has written to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy asking for an immediate ban of the bull taming events which commenced with this years Pongal festivities.
“This is the most inhumane action taking place in the country as animals and humans are getting killed in the most gruesome manner,” said Nikunj Sharma, the Indian representative of PETA, who sent the letter to Palaniswami.
Sharma pointed out that 23 persons (most of them spectators) were gored to death and six bulls were killed in 2017 alone since the Jallikkaatu was resumed in Tamil Nadu following the demonstration held by some organisations at Chennai’s Marina Beach in January 2017.
The Government of Tamil Nadu was forced to pass the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act 2017 to facilitate the revival of the event which was banned by the Supreme Court earlier following pleas filed by animal rights activists as well as individuals who were upset over the death of men and animals.
“Since the passage of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, in January 2017, at least 23 humans and six bulls (but likely more, as the animals' deaths aren't usually recorded) have died and nearly 2,500 humans and numerous bulls have been injured, proving that Jallikattu is inherently cruel and dangerous. One bull is reported to have become so frightened that he died of cardiac arrest at the event held in Allur near Srirangam in Tiruchy district on Sunday,” Sharma has written in the letter.
He has enclosed documentary as well as factual evidences like accounts by eye witnesses who were present during the Jallikkattu. The letter has also documented how animals are tortured and attacked by the tamers, organisers as well as the owners. Some of the shots feature men stabbing and jabbing bulls with sickles and other sharp objects. The Pioneer in its reports had mentioned how the bulls are forced violently through the Vaadi vaasal (narrow passage which leads to the arena) when they show any kind of reluctance to enter the playing arena.
T M Menon, corporate executive-turned-animal rights activist, who followed the jallikkattu events said it was not at all a sporting activity. “It is pure violence and barbarism of a past that was full of arrogance and pride of the owners of the bulls played out in an era otherwide devoid of any native forms of testosterone-pumping entertainment for men. The spectacle of human males combating animal males for supremacy amid the jeering crowds is for me the quintessence of human violence and cruelty against the innocent and unthinking bull. Raising this event to the level of a sport, part of Tamil culture, pride etc is a travesty of all that,” said Menon after watching the bull taming and bullock cart races in Tamil Nadu.
K Gopalakrishnan, former director, Archaeological Survey of India, said the present day Jallikkatu has no resemblance to the traditional rural sport that took place in the State long back. “What we see today is an event polluted by gambling and betting which should not be allowed,” said Gopalakrishnan.