June 5, 2020
An animal rights’ organization People for Ethical Treatment of Animal commonly known as PETA in India has attracted a strong criticism from poultry farmers against consumption of meat in Karnataka. The poultry farms have just begun to recover from the mishaps they suffered due to the rumours linking COVID-19 to spread among chickens and consumption of it harmful.
“The wet market at Wuhan in China sold live and slaughtered species of snakes, bats, beavers, and other wild animals. But, in India, that’s not the case, where it is mostly poultry meat, sheep and fish. The two are not comparable,” said Karnataka’s Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association (KPFBA) responding to PETA India’s advertisement title conveying “India: It’s time to move away from meat”.
The advertisement claims that “India’s live animal meat markets, factory farms, and slaughterhouses are as filthy as China’s wet markets, where the pandemic likely started” before linking consumption of meat to a variety of ailments.
Accusing PETA India of spreading false information by attributing the probable spread of COVID-19 to the meat markets in India, KPFBA president Sushanth Rai, in a statement, said they will take up the “misleading ad campaign” with the Advertising Standards Council of India and to decide a legal action over it.
KPFBA has also sought to counter the advertisement’s efforts to correlate ailments like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure etc. to consumption of non-vegetarian food by citing scientific studies recommending non-vegetarian diet. Referring to the dietary guidelines issued by National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Rai said the institute recommends animal foods like milk, meat, fish, and eggs, besides plant foods such as pulses and legumes as they are rich sources of protein. “Animal proteins are of high quality as they provide essential amino acids in right proportions…” the statement said.
Rai questioned how PETA India could arrive at a controversial conclusion that non-vegetarian food alone causes health problems, while ignoring the basic lifestyle issues including consumption of tobacco and alcohol.He said the poultry industry not only provides quality nutrients, but also ensures large-scale employment and contributes ₹1.2 lakh crore to the country’s GDP. “PETA India should refrain from making dietary choice to the population of India, which is diverse socially, culturally and economically,” the statement mentioned.