Full of the milk of human kindness

Q&A/ Anuradha Sawhney, PETA India chief

Working for a leather buying house, Anuradha Sawhney was unaware of animal cruelty until she came across a piece which still had fur on it. That changed her life, she tells Priyanka Joshi.

So a single piece of leather drove you to PETA?

You can say that. I was under the impression that the company I worked for used synthetic by-products, not animal leather.

I have been an animal lover since childhood but it was a small piece of leather that turned me off my job and drove me to the PETA office in Mumbai. Although PETA did not have a job, I convinced them to hire me.

What was your role as a PETA member?

I joined PETA in 2000 and I had to educate myself on animal issues from scratch. I didn’t know there were laws that prevented animals from being kept in captivity or that it was illegitimate to keep rare species of birds.

Did being a member of PETA change you?

I turned vegan after realising the inhumane treatment animals are subjected to to extract milk in larger quantities.

From the time cows are of calf-bearing age, they are impregnated and used as nothing more than milk providing machines.

Dairy owners make extensive use of the banned drug Oxytocin, easily available at all panwallahs around dairies. Female calves are given the minimal amount to survive.

Any failures?

Yes. The one that bothers me till date is when we rescued 19 tigers and lions from a circus in Mumbai but had to leave a bear behind.

The court had directed us to liberate all the animals and take them to a site in Jaipur.

But this facility was not equipped to take a bear. We requested the government to allow us to take the bear and relocate it to another rescue centre but red-tapism prevented us. Later, the bear died in captivity.

PETA’s use of film stars has been dismissed as a publicity stunt. How does it benefit animals?

PETA is an NGO and to get our message across to every Indian, we need the support of Bollywood stars.

When people see a John Abraham posing inside a cage, they get the message that it is wrong to cage birds. We have received donations and support from the public whenever we have used Bollywood celebrities.

When a star agrees to do an advertisement for us, all newspapers and channels carry it. Many of our celebrity supporters call us when an animal on the sets is being mistreated.