SUNNY LEONE, RAW PRESSERY, AND ARTURE HONOURED BY PETA INDIA
Actor Nabs Award for Digital Advocacy; Companies Recognised for Animal-Friendly Business Models
Mumbai – At an event at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club in Colaba on Saturday – which included a performance by Sourabh Joshi, whose recent hit songs include “Banjara” and”Chandni Raat” – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India presented vegetarian actor and long-time PETA India pal Sunny Leone with a Digital Activism Award for her animal advocacy on social media. The group also gave a Best Vegan Drinks Award to Raw Pressery for developing delicious, protein-packed plant-based milks and juices and an Innovative Fashion Award to Arture for making vegan bags, wallets, and travel accessories out of cork.
Award Night by PETA India ,at Colaba .
“Our award winners are blazing a better trail for animals and the planet and have won a special place in the hearts of their fans or customers and PETA India,” says PETA India Corporate Liaison Zarna Thakkar. “Animals have found compassionate allies in Sunny Leone, Raw Pressery, and Arture.”
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or wear” – notes that Leone’s online actions for animals include tweeting about everything from the benefits of eating vegetarian to the importance of always adopting dogs in need instead of buying them, as well as calling for the release of the elephant Gajraj, who was chained for more than 50 years beforePETA India successfully orchestrated his rescue. She was previously named the group’s 2016 Person of the Year.
The dairy industry is systematically inhumane. Farmers repeatedly forcibly impregnate cows and buffaloes through traumatic artificial insemination, which is actually rape. They also commonly inject cattle with oxytocin to force them to release more milk, causing pain similar to being in labour. Shortly after mother cows and buffaloes give birth, farmers typically tear their calves away from them. If the babies are female, they are often fed with milk replacer and, just like their mothers, will be treated like milk machines and usually ultimately abandoned or killed for beef. If they’re male, farmers generally abandon them, let them starve, or sell them for beef.
Leather production leads directly to animal suffering, too. Cows, buffaloes, and other animals used for leather in India are often crammed onto vehicles in such high numbers that their bones break and they have trouble breathing, and many die en route to the slaughterhouse. If they survive, their throats are cut in full view of other animals, and many are dismembered and skinned while they’re still conscious. In addition, run-off from leather tanneries poisons rivers and streams – harming all life in the area – and has been linked to cancer, respiratory infections, and other illnesses in humans.
