New PETA India Video Expose Shows Bulls Beaten, Whipped, And Bitten In 2019 Jallikattu Events

PETA India's 2019 investigations revealed acts of cruelty and dangerous situations including the following:

• Bulls were hit with bare hands, whipped, and jabbed with wooden sticks.
• Their tails were bitten, twisted, and yanked to force them to run towards the menacing crowd.
• Their nose ropes were roughly yanked, causing their nostrils to bleed.
• Panicked bulls fled onto village streets, injuring onlookers and even goring some to death.
• Onlookers hit and jumped onto bulls fleeing the collection yards and engaged in the illegal practice of "parallel Jallikattu".
• Bulls sustained severe injuries, and some animals collapsed from exhaustion.

According to news reports, at least 42 humans, 14 bulls and one cow have died during the events held since Jallikattu was permitted again under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017. Hundreds more participants and spectators were injured. An accurate count of human and bull injuries and deaths is unavailable, as news agencies don't often report bull deaths and may not report on humans who die after suffering for a few days from injuries sustained during Jallikattu.

"Year after year, PETA India's investigations tell the same story of mass human and bull deaths and of bulls being deliberately tormented and forced to take part in Jallikattu," says PETA India CEO Dr Manilal Valliyate. "Jallikattu is an inherently abusive and dangerous practice that has no place in our modern and progressive society. PETA India is calling for an immediate reinstatement of the ban on these cruel events."

Investigations of Jallikattu events by PETA India in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and inspections by the Animal Welfare Board of India from 2008 to 2014 consistently found cruelty to bulls in violation of the central law The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, and – since it has been applicable – The Tamil Nadu Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Conduct of Jallikattu) Rules, 2017. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, gives a blanket exemption from the PCA Act for Jallikattu events, while the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Conduct of Jallikattu) Rules, 2017, only suggests barring violators from future events. As a result, people who deliberately torment bulls during the events are not subject to any fines or jail time. PETA India continues to push for an end to Jallikattu via the Supreme Court.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way" – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview.