(IN) PETA founder held in India over bullfight protest

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PETA founder held in India over bullfight protest

 

46 minutes ago

 

CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - Police arrested the head of the animal rights group

PETA for a breach of public peace and insulting religious feelings while

protesting against a bullfighting festival in south India, officials said on

Friday.

 

Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was

held on Thursday after she blindfolded a statue of Indian independence leader

Mohandas K. Gandhi to protest against cruelty towards bulls in the ancient sport

of " jallikattu. "

 

Organized as part of the January harvest festival of " pongal, " jallikattu is

India's version of the running of the bulls which takes place every year in the

Spanish city of Pamplona.

 

Fighters and muscular wild bulls -- often pepped up with large amounts of

homemade liquor -- dash after each other in the streets of the southern state of

Tamil Nadu.

 

Unlike the Spanish version of the sport, the aim is not to kill the bulls but to

dominate and tame them, and pluck away bundles of money or other treats tied to

their specially sharpened horns.

 

Police said Newkirk was held on charges of breaching public peace, hurting

religious sentiments and damaging statues after she entered a park in Coimbatore

town and put a cloth around the eyes of Gandhi's statue.

 

She then hung a placard saying: " Reject cruel sport jallikattu. " She was

released on bail.

 

Newkirk told Reuters she did not mean any disrespect to Gandhi but blindfolded

his statue to symbolically shield him from the cruelty of the sport.

 

" In the name of taming of the bull, 10, 20, 50 people torment the animal and

thousands cheer, " she said. " You can see fear and confusion in the eyes of the

animal as it tries to flee. "

 

India's animal welfare board has also criticized the festival saying men beat

the animals and throw burning chilli powder in their eyes, ears and mouth to

enrage them.

 

India's Supreme Court banned jallikattu last year, saying it was cruel and not

in keeping with what it described as the country's non-violent traditions.

 

But that ban was watered down this month, and the court said the popular sport

could be held under strict government vigil.

 

Fighters and spectators have been gored or trampled to death, and the number of

injured fighters has often run into the hundreds. The festival has been marketed

as a tourist attraction in recent years.

 

(Writing by Krittivas Mukherjee; editing by Simon Denyer and Sanjeev Miglani)