In the last 5 years meat eating has risen to the highest levels it has ever been. The reason for this is that India is, thanks to TV, turning non-vegetarian. Soon we will lose the magic and mystery of India, the soul and the gurus who have kept it alive, and become just another struggling, boring nation full of viciousness. According to the Mahabharata, the Kalyug started on the day that man discovered he could eat his fellow creatures. From there it was a short step to wars, slavery and wickedness to all humans. 

All animals that are grown for meat are raised, trucked and killed with extreme cruelty. But man has taken unkindness to an art form. Let me give you a list of the cruellest foods. I am sure I can give you at least 100, but let me start with ten.

1. A Japanese dish, Ikizukuri means "prepared alive".  It is the preparation of fresh raw meat, usually of fish, cut into thin slices made from live seafood and served as sashimi. The victims are fish, octopus, shrimp, and lobster. You choose the animal. The chef uses his skills to partially gut and cut the animals up and serve it.  He must cut the fish without killing it. With its heart exposed and beating, gills still working, trying to gasp for air and painfully conscious while its body is being cut up. Often the chef will take the pieces he cut from the fish and "reassemble" them like some nightmarish jigsaw puzzle. The Chinese have Yin Yang Fish, which involves dipping the living fish into oil and frying it alive, but again just enough that it is still living right up until you plunge your fork into it and put it wriggling into your mouth.

2.  Ortolan is a tiny songbird native to most European countries and west Asia. It is about six inches long and weighs just four ounces. The French capture these birds alive, blind them using a pair of pincers and then squeeze them into tiny cages where they cannot move. The bird is fed millets, grapes and figs till it reaches 4 times its size. Then it is drowned in a liquor called Armagnac, roasted whole and eaten, bones and all, while the diner drapes his head with a linen napkin to preserve the aroma of the brandy – and probably to hide from God.

3. "Foie Gras" means "fatty liver," and it comes from ducks or geese. Adult ducks and geese are taken to a dark room and put in fowl coffins. A long metal pipe is shoved down the bird's oesophagus and a machine pumps pounds of fat greased corn mix directly into their digestive systems, which then gets deposited in their livers. This goes on till their livers reach six times their normal size. The birds writhe in pain for three weeks but they are stuck in boxes where they cannot even spread their wings. Then their throats are cut and the cancerous liver taken out and sold as a delicacy for rich people.

4. This is a dish invented by people who are known for their culinary cruelty – the Japanese.  The victims are baby Dojo loaches (Mudfishes). The recipe calls for boiling water. When the water is heating up, a block of soyabean tofu is placed in the vessel. The baby loaches are added and they try to escape being boiled alive by plunging straight into the still cold tofu. The tofu starts cooking and the little fish are cooked alive inside it. The final product resembles Swiss cheese, the holes created by panicked baby loaches trying to escape boiling water.

5. A product of that other compassionate civilization, the Chinese who brought it to Tibet – or vice versa - Feng Gan Ji means "wind dried chicken.”  The chicken is not killed. Its stomach is sliced open and its intestines are cut out and replaced with spices and herbs as stuffing. The stomach is sewn up again in the still living bird and it is then strung upside down to die and dry in the wind.

6. Another dish known in China as Huo Jia Lu meaning “Live Donkey". The animal has its legs tied and its body held down, while the cook cuts its body and serves it immediately to the diners who quietly eat it among the ear splitting cries of the animal.  The flesh is actually eaten raw without cooking. The diner uses a special fork and spoon to scoop out some of the flesh from the donkey. The meat is dipped into the fresh red blood before it is eaten.  A variation of this dish is called Jiao Lu Rou ("Water Donkey Meat"), where the donkey's skin is pulled off and boiling water poured on its raw flesh until it is cooked.

7. Nagaland has its dog variation. A dog is tied to a tree and kept hungry for a week. It is then given a bucket of rice, lentils and vegetables to eat. It stuffs itself. It is then turned upside down and its stomach split open while alive and the food scooped out and eaten.

8. Nothing like eating your own relatives.  A monkey is forcibly pulled to the dining table, tightly bound with hoops over its hands and legs. One of the diners uses a hammer to create a hole in the live monkey’s head. Its cracked skull opens from its head and the diners use a stick to extract the brain. The monkey usually screams terribly before dying. Diners use their spoons to scrape through the bloody monkey’s brain. Others dip the raw brain into a herb soup in order to add to the aroma while eating.

9. We in the Northeast have another amazing way to eat the most intelligent and emotional animal on the planet – the pig. A sharp iron rod is poked through the pig’s anus and pushed in till it comes out through the mouth , tearing up all the organs on the way. The still living pig is then roasted over a fire.

10. Another popular Far Eastern dish - a newly born rodent and a selection of vegetables are brought to the table. The diner uses a special skewer to stab the live rodent. The rodent, who cannot bear the pain of being pierced, squeals as it is impaled on the skewer. The diner dips the still-live rodent into the boiling oil and then eats it.

Next week I will tell you 10 more. Put yourself in the animal’s place.

I cannot imagine the people who enjoy this – and then believe that praying to the gods will result in something good for themselves.

Maneka Gandhi

To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

People for Animals is stuck in a legal case in Mumbai that just seems to go on and on. We want the carriage horses removed from Mumbai. Inspite of the clear evidence that the carriage horses are suffering, inspite of the fact that our lawyers and the lawyers of all the other parties – including the Mumbai Municipal Corporation and the State Government all agree that the horses have to be pulled off the roads, the case carries on and on. 

The judge’s latest order is that only sick horses can be pulled off temporarily and then put back on the road. Everyone knows the time for carriage horses and city tangas is over. It is now only a matter of months before they are taken off – either by court order or by an enlightened local administration. Delhi has already banned horses three years ago. Mumbai will have to do it sooner or later and so will all the other main cities.

I was in Kashmir recently. I stayed at the Lalit Hotel.  It was so hot that I almost fainted. The hotel had one white horse and carriage and in this terrible heat it carried tourists, usually young children, up and down the tarred road the entire day. I give the horse a year more of life. Families in the city that depend on horses overwork them and refuse to spend money to look after them at all.

The Mumbai Municipal Corporation in its report to the court said that their stables were so filthy that there was a good chance they could spread disease to all the human residents nearby. All the stables were illegal: the BMC had not given licences since 1974. They had been issued notices on the grounds that their stables created a nuisance and their filthy, unsanitary unhygienic conditions were health hazards. The BMC found 158 horses stuffed in very few stables. There were 93 in one! Notices were issued and 18 horses had been seized in 2010-2011. But Mumbai’s horses have more problems than just these stables.

Many horses have no stables: they stand in the open at night in the heat, cold and rain till they die. Some horses are painted black or white and they have skin allergies. Some have their shoes removed as people buy horse shoes for luck and the continuous nailing and removal leads to hoof injuries. They are constantly whipped and while the injuries do not show on the surface they cause acute pain to the animal. Those sores that do fester are invaded by maggots and the animal is eaten alive. Most blacksmiths lack knowledge about properly constructing horseshoes. Using poor quality iron, lack of proper farrier tools, the uneven surfaces of horse shoes lead to causing lameness in work horses.

Most work horses suffer from diseases like lameness, colic, wounds and respiratory problems; their owners lack knowledge, funds or the sensitivity to deal with their medical requirements. Many of these carriage horses are given steroids to make them bigger artificially. They promote rapid muscle growth. But artificially enhanced muscle growth can be too much for the weak skeletal structure that supports it. The quality of food and water leads to malnutrition and weakened immunity which in turn makes them vulnerable to diseases.

There is no shelter in any city where a sick horse can be kept till he/she is well again. Horses are regularly hit by cars or buses. They die and often the car and driver are hurt as well. The latest incident in Mumbai was on July 2^nd this year when a horse collapsed on the road and died after being hit by a taxi. It’s owner had jumped a red signal and cantered ahead heedless of the traffic. The horse was being taken to Nariman Point to give joyrides to tourists.

In December 2011 a horse and its owner were injured after a private bus rammed into them. The horse’s backbone was broken. In November a horse was hit by a bus in Thane. The impact threw the horse to the other side of the road and the owner fell on the footpath, both suffering injuries.

Kolkata has the same rate of accidents. Recently a horse of the Kolkata Mounted Police stable died after it was knocked down by a minibus. The horse collapsed and came under the wheels of the bus. Horses that are overworked and injured by their ill-fitting harnesses are regularly abandoned on the side of the city roads where they starve to death or are killed. Many are regularly abandoned on the Mumbai beach.

Under the law, each horse has to be licenced - and the licence can only be issued after a health check-up and vaccination for any diseases. No city administration bothers to do this. However, if horses were treated well by their owners in the city, should they be allowed to be there? Even then, the answer is No.

Dr Phiroz Khambatta of Mahalaxmi Racecourse is regarded as the best horse vet in India. He also treats the animals of the Middle East. We asked him to do a survey of the horses in Mumbai. His report listed that no horses are allowed to sit or lie down DURING THEIR ENTIRE LIVES because there was no space and this was extreme cruelty. That means they are standing from the time they were born to the time they die – imagine if you had to do that.

Horses in fields sit and lie down every day. More important, he wrote, that no horse should ply on hard, unyielding ground as the shock goes to the tendons and joints and causes extreme pain with each step. “Concrete and tar roads are inherently bad for horses. Plying horses on concrete and tar leads to crippling diseases like osteoarthritis, carthorse tendons and tendonsynovitis which causes inflammation of the joints and tendons causing pain and tenderness.” Horses require a firm but yielding surface like mud or ground. He has treated these carriage horses for the last 25 years and found each horse has a problem with hooves, tendons and ligaments.

According to him “It is inherently cruel to make horses ply on concrete and tar”. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi ban order says (in short) “Since lakhs of vehicles are running, in addition cruelty to these animals is a regular feature on the road, there is no need, place and demand for slow moving animal driven vehicles. The animals are made to work in extreme heat and cold. The load put on them is far more than is allowed by the PCA Act 1960. There have been many accidents leading to minor/ major injuries of horses and pedestrians. These equines defecate on the road causing unsanitary conditions and infectious diseases. The owners of these draught animals are not in a position to provide them a healthy wholesome diet. There is no proper housing for keeping the animals at night. Most die premature deaths. Since the carcasses have no economic value, the contractors refuse to pick up the bodies and they lie unattended. Therefore they should be removed from the city.”

I wish the Hon’ble judge in Mumbai would open his heart and mind. The owners can be given scooters as the ones in Delhi were.  Many can be employed with the racecourse. But it is time we reached a conclusion on this matter so that it applies all over India.

Maneka Gandhi

To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

When every good politician is abroad or on “study trips” in Kashmir, Goa or Ranikhet, I am at the Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre every day making sure it works.  Wading through gobar, picking up abandoned kittens, feeding the ducks, cleaning the monkey cages, shouting at the maintenance men. It’s a horrible day, made more horrible by Good Samaritans.

What should a Good Samaritan be ? Someone who picks up an unknown injured animal and brings it to the vet, assumes financial responsibility and comes every day or as often as they can to look after the animal and then take it back to where it was found – or find a home for it.  I am delighted whenever I find one of these.

Unfortunately, these humans are really rare.

What do I get instead. The self confessed do-gooder who feeds the animals in his/her locality, will not get them sterilized or treated if they have skin disease. Instead of being a responsible caretaker, he/she fights with all the neighbours and finally when the family gives up, brings all the healthy animals to me – or sends for my free ambulance to bring them to the hospital. He/she will come by with a long explanation of the fights, the neighbours, the police and then will refuse to pay for the animals since she ( these are usually women) has no money, will never come by again and these healthy animals will sicken and die in the hospital or have to be vaccinated, sterilized and then kept forever by us.

The other good Samaritan is the one who sees a mother with her pups on the road and feels sorry for them so has to bring them to us , leaves them at the gate so that she does not have to pay and then disappears in her car. She will ring up at odd hours and keep asking about the animals. If the overworked reception refuses to answer, she will complain to me about the rudeness of the staff.

Here are some more good Samaritans:

Some one who cannot keep the dog or cat in their house any more as they have an ill member of the family or a baby has been born or they are getting transferred  and rather than kick it out on the road as bad people do, these ‘good’ people will leave it at the hospital. First they ask where they can leave the dog. When they are told they cannot, it is a wicked thing to do, or that if they leave the dog they will have to pay Rs.15,000 for its upkeep, they argue and shout about what a fake Maneka Gandhi is and that we do not care for animals at all – as they do. Two days later they pretend they have brought the animal for treatment, tie the dog to a tree and disappear.

People who come to the hospital for free treatment at 2 p.m. and flash their People for Animals membership cards and say that the animal was found by them, was adopted by them (as if the rest of us humans gave birth to our dogs and cats) and therefore they are entitled to  free treatment. The dog is clearly a pedigreed one and not likely to have been taken from the road – but the argument about non payment and their self praise for having given a dog a home will go on till , out of exhaustion, the night duty doctor will do the treatment for free.

The police who bring in animals routinely  - their own , not those picked up from the street- and expect free treatment on a priority basis. We do these without argument – who wants to quarrel with a group that has 41 custodial deaths in their thanas daily (according to the Human Rights commission).

Donors who have once before given money for chairs or bricks or a cooler and for the rest of their lives expect free service for their animals.

People who claim that when they bought the animal they were well off, have had a recent reversal of fortune and cannot spend money on their animals. They leave the choice to us : either we treat the terrible, unwell animal or they will put it to sleep.

People who have kept two cats or two rabbits in their house, allow them to breed and when they reach a number like 30 , will bring them in baskets and tell us with tears in their eyes that they do not have the money to look after them anymore so either we take them or they will have to drown them.

People who see a suffering animal near their house, will send for our ambulance which will go 30 miles away to get the animal but will refuse to give any donation on the grounds that they have already done their duty by calling for help – and in any case, the animal does not belong to them.

People who bring an animal every day to the free section. Having proclaimed themselves too poor to pay for any medicine or treatment for the first animal they brought in , they will now bring in one every day with the most minor complaints. They will not learn first aid. Most of the animals turn out to be ones that belong to people in their neighbourhood.

These people of good-will, present the injured, suffering animal to us and expect us to fund the treatment of the animal. We do, but remember, all animal welfare organization get nothing from the government or from companies. We are totally strapped for money all the time and if these people would just remember the parable of the Good Samaritan we might make a better world together.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the New Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke (10:29-37) Jesus  said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he travelled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.’ Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbour to him who fell among the robbers?

"He said, "He who showed mercy on him."

Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Our would-be ‘Good Samaritans’ will certainly have pity on the animal. But you will note that the Good Samaritan did not say, "Hey, Innkeeper, can't you see how much I care for this guy? Fix him up. And by the way, I don't have any money. See you later." The self-proclaiming Good Samaritans have no interest in assuming financial responsibility for the problem at hand. And what's worse, they appeal to the veterinarian/shelter to use his/her time and resources to look after the animal, making him/them the bad guy if they don’t.  It drives me crazy every day.

All good Samaritans want the animal to get alright.  They want the warm fuzzy ending that makes them feel like a hero. If you say that the animal needs to be euthanized, they get very annoyed and I get emails and phone calls on how wicked my vets are.

The term "good Samaritan" is used as a common metaphor: The word now applies to any charitable person who, like the man in the parable, rescues or helps out a needy stranger.  It certainly does not apply to any of the types mentioned above who are simple people stroking their egos while claiming freebies.

Bring the animals to us of course - but your responsibility does not end there. Help us help them.

Maneka Gandhi

To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Which human does not shudder at the sight of a cockroach? The first reaction is to kill them; the second, to chase them away. The presence of a cockroach also brings on feelings of guilt – that the house is not clean enough, or irritation – if you are in someone else’s house. The cockroach may be the most objectionable household insect. It consumes human food and contaminates it with saliva and excrement. It also produces secretions that impart a characteristic stinking odour.

Actually a cockroach is an extremely useful scavenger. In fact if you did not have cockroaches, no city could work, as they clean the drains into which every city human pours his filth. In the forest the cockroaches quickly eat the dead leaves and other decaying matter and turn it into mulch which is essential for the growth of new trees.

Let me tell you the marvels of the cockroach.

If your children ever get to the moon they might find that the only inhabitants there are cockroaches. When the Apollo Space mission was going to the moon the astronauts noticed a cockroach in their spaceship. When they returned, the craft was thoroughly inspected and no trace was found of the cockroach. This has led NASA to believe that it crept out - with its usual curiosity and intrepidity - and was left behind. But how can a single cockroach populate a planet? Here lies the miracle - some female cockroaches mate once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives!

Everything about the cockroach is amazing:

* It can run three miles in one hour - the fastest insect alive.

* It can hold its breath for 40 minutes.

* It can live a week without a head, only dying of thirst because it has no mouth to drink water.

* It can squeeze into cracks that are 1.6 millimetres thick - the equivalent of you trying to fit into a football.

* It can survive temperatures as low as 0 degrees centigrade but when it gets really cold, it likes snuggling with humans or any other warm body!

* It can recognise members of its own family just by their smell. (Can you remember your brother's smell?)

* Its heart is a simple tube that can pump blood both backwards and forward and even stop at will without harming the insect.

The cockroach is the greatest escape artist of all time with an uncanny ability to sense danger, whether that of a live predator or a broom. How does it do that? With its hair (when was the last time your hair told you anything?)

The cockroach has tiny hair on its back, which are designed to bend easily. These hairs grow in every direction and can sense changes in wind direction from all sides. For instance, when you lift a shoe from behind, the insect senses a slight change in the shift in wind pattern from behind as the hair on its back is pushed forward. It immediately darts off in a different direction. It has little claws on its feet so it can climb walls and of course it can squeeze itself under any door.

What is the role of a cockroach in helping the world survive: it is a scavenger. It cleans your sewers and other places by eating the filth that you create and which, if allowed to rot, would make disease unmanageable. It is eaten by other insects, frogs, snakes and birds. It has an important role in the decomposition of forest litter and excreta.

That doesn't mean that you encourage it, only that you understand that its role in the world is more important than yours.

Cockroaches are hardy creatures. The insecticides that have been invented to kill them are poisonous to human beings. Since they only kill adult cockroaches, they have to be sprayed several times a week. However, since cockroaches taste their food before eating it, they learn to avoid chemically-treated products. Therefore, most chemicals do not provide good long-term control.

There are several non-pesticide approaches to managing cockroaches, including food, water removal, natural repellents. The efficacy of each method may vary and combinations of methods may be necessary. Since cockroaches like to eat carbohydrates of vegetable origin, meat, grease, starch, sweets, and beer, the first act of cockroach control is to reduce or eliminate access to these foods. Here are some non-poisonous ways in which you can keep them away from your house:

Make a swab (pocha) of Eucalyptus oil -2 ounces per 5 litres of water and swab it daily. You can do the same with Peppermint Oil--2 ounces per 5 litres of water and concentrate on the areas where you think cockroaches come from. Rosemary oil--3 ounces per 5 litres of water is another option.

Another option is Garlic oil but that will leave you uneasy as well so use it when you really have an infestation and keep it only in the cockroach areas.

Okra, raw or stewed (Bhindi). Place on a dish under sinks.

Stewed cucumber peel. Place 1 cup of the stewed peel in areas where cockroaches congregate.

Crushed bay leaves can be used to repel cockroaches. Put into cupboards, fridges.

Take some atta (flour), water, few drops of cedarwood, sandalwood and patchouli oil. Make little balls and place it in microwave oven, cupboards, drains etc.

Take camphor, carum seeds and some neem oil, which can be sprinkled in drains to keep the cockroaches away.

Tie wild sage in bunches and hang around the house, around outdoor porches, terraces, window sills etc. Put basil, cayenne pepper, rosemary, dried root of khus khus.

Of course, the happiest thing is to keep chickens as pets - instead of as food. Chickens eat a wide range of insects, including ticks and cockroaches, and therefore can be used for insect control. Hence, in rural areas, chickens provide natural pest control.

Maneka Gandhi

To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.