Indian Supreme Court flipflops on bullfights

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2008:

 

 

 

Indian Supreme Court flipflops on bullfights

 

NEW DELHI--As many as 400 villages in the

Madurai region of Tamil Nadu held traditional

mass participation bullfights called jallikattu

during the Pongal harvest festival on January 17,

2008, after a three-judge panel of the Supreme

Court of India on January 15 reversed an order

halting jallikattu issued by a two-judge panel of

the Supreme Court just four days earlier.

The original order kept in effect a ban

on jallikattu rendered by the Supreme Court in

July 2007, reversing a verdict by the Madras

High Court that allowed it. The Supreme Court is

to hear an appeal of the July 2007 verdict filed

by the government of Tamil Nadu later in 2008.

Jallikattu was allowed this year under

condition, summarized the Deccan Herald, that

" the authorities shall take all precaution that

the animals are not tortured. There would be no

cruelty on the animals. No liquor, no injury to

any of the bulls. "

Tamil Nadu assistant solicitor general

Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court that

jallikattu should be permitted as a

constitutionally protected exercise of religion.

" There is a belief that if the bullfight is not

organised, there will not be a good harvest next

year, " Subramanium contended.

Responded the Supreme Court panel, " We

do not approve of all the reasons given by the

State of Tamil Nadu for modifying the order.

However, it is pointed out that this is a part of

the religious festival of Pongal, and villages

have been celebrating the same from time

immemorial. "

Subramanium cited intelligence reports

asserting that " In most villages, the people

have decided to defy the Supreme Court order and

to go ahead with jallikattu as usual. This

situation would create a major law and order

problem in many placesŠ "

Responded one justice, according to J.

Venkatesan of The Hindu, " If you say a law and

order problem will arise in implementing the

order, then no order can be passed by this

court, " since any law must be enforced.

On January 16, the eve of Pongal,

Coimbatore police arrested PETA founder Ingrid

Newkirk, PETA/India staff member N.G. Jayasimha,

and a watchman after Newkirk blindfolded a statue

of Mohandas Gandhi as part of an anti-jallikattu

protest.

The three were charged with four offenses

each, including " intentional insult with intent

to provoke breach of the peace, " and " deliberate

and malicious acts intended to outrage the

religious feelings of a class by insulting its

religion or beliefs. "

In addition, " Inspector Cederick Manuel

was transferred to the City Police Armed Reserve

for failing to stop the protest, " reported V.S.

Palaniappan of The Hindu.

Responded Newkirk, " Blindfolding the

statue was only a sign of respect for Gandhi, to

close his eyes toward the horror meted out to

animals in the name of jallikattu. "

 

Fights go on

 

" Hours after the Supreme Court cleared

the conduct of jallikattu in Tamil Nadu, the

event was held amidst tight security at Palamedu

in Madurai district, " reported D. Karthikeyan

and S. Vijay Kumar of The Hindu. " Eighty-three

persons were injured, 14 of them seriously, in

the six-hour-long native sport in which unarmed

men attempted to tame raging bulls. A total of

397 bulls and 339 registered tamers participated.

Fourteen bulls were rejected on medical grounds. "

At Alanganallur, wrote S. Vijay Kumar

and C. Jaishankar of The Hindu, " A team of

veterinary doctors examined the bulls for

intoxication or drugging. Bullfighters also

underwent medical tests. Of the 370 persons who

volunteered to enter the arena, only 347 were

allowed. The remainder were disqualified on

medical grounds. Forty two of the 427 bulls

brought from all over the southern districts were

rejected on grounds of lack of fitness or

sharpened horns. Hundreds of police were

deployed along the public gallery and at

vulnerable points. Double barricading separated

spectators from the participants. Strict access

control was maintained at the arena. Taming the

bull meant holding on to his hump for some

distance. Those who tried to hold the animal by

his tail or legs were removed.

" Unlike before, participants were split

into small groups and allowed to enter the arena

one after the other, " wrote Kumar and

Jaishankar. " On many occasions, district

collector S.S. Jawahar came on the public address

system to warn those violating norms. Upset over

being removed from the arena or gallery, some

persons pelted the police with stones, "

Sixteen people were hurt at the

Alanganallur jallikattu, six of them seriously.

Efforts to enforce the Supreme

Court-imposed restrictions on jallikattu were

less stringently enforced in other districts.

" Sixty-nine persons, including

spectators, were injured at the jallikattu held

at Siravayal, near Sivaganga, " Kumar and

Jaishankar reported.

At Theni, jallikattu spectator Muthu

Rawther, 70, fell into the arena and was

fatally gored. " The death led to two groups of

his relatives attacking each other, " said The

Hindu. " V. Iyappan, his wife Lakshmi, and M.

Iyappan were attacked with sickles and lethal

weapons. "

Similar events involving buffalo, called

dhirio, were banned by the Goa High Court in

1997, at request of People for Animals.

Congress Party leaders in Goa have campaigned on

a promise to amend the federal Prevention of

Cruelty Towards Animal Act to reinstate dhirio.

Buffalo fights have also been banned in Madhya

Pradesh, though some villages have defied the

ban.

Animal advocates in Assam had hoped to

invoke these precedents and the earlier Supreme

Court of India rulings to stop harvest festival

buffalo fights there, called bhogali bihu.

People for Animals/Assam president

Sangita Goswami also cited the same sections of

the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act this

year in trying to stop cockfights and staged

fights among wild-caught bulbuls, a songbird

species common to most of India.

Despite her efforts, reported the Indian

Express, at least 150 buffalo were used in

bhogali bihu at Ahahat Guri, 80 kilometers east

of Guwahati, the Assam capital, and " more than

250 bulbuls took part in a day-long bulbul fight

at Hajo, a temple town about 30 kilometers west

of Guwahati. "

Meanwhile in Spain

The effort of traditionalists to preserve

jallikattu and similar events in India mirrors

efforts of traditionalists in Spain to preserve

traditional Spanish-style bullfighting. Citing

low ratings, the Spanish state television

network Radiotelevisió Española on December 5,

2007 omitted bullfighting coverage from its next

projected nine-year budget. RTVE debuted by

broadcasting a bullfight in 1948. Parliamentary

conservatives pledged to try to restore the

bullfighting budget, but more than 70% of the

Spanish public expressed no interest in

bullfighting in opinion polls.

Even as bullfight crowds and television

audiences decline, however, participation in

" running with the bulls " events is still growing.

A goring at the 2007 edition of the best known

such event, the week-long Feast of San Fermin in

Navarre, Spain, brought the human death toll up

to 14 since 1924--but despite the aura of danger

surrounding the San Fermin bull running, made

famous by Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 novel The

Sun Also Rises, the rate of deaths and injuries

among the 18,000 participants per year who sprint

a half kilometer ahead of bulls en route to the

San Fermin bull ring may be less than the death

and injury rate among jaywalkers in big cities at

rush hour.

Among the oddest of San Fermin knockoffs

is a " Running of the Reindeer " scheduled for

February 24, 2008 as part of the annual Fur

Rendezvous festival in Anchorage, Alaska. As of

January 3, 2008, 40 participants had

registered, at $20 apiece, reported Beth Bragg

of the Anchorage Daily News.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

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