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It may be hard to believe, but "Independent" Hindu India now kills more animals than ever before! Even more than the enslaved India under Christian British rule, or even the very ruthless Moslem emperors . . . More animals have been butchered in the last decade than any previous decade in India's history!! After independence, we have tried to catch up with the industrialization of the 20th century. For that we needed foreign machinery, for which we needed foreign exchange, for which we had to export many of our resources -even the ones scarce to our poor masses or important to our future generations. Most lately we have resorted to exporting meat. The government has issued licenses to huge slaughterhouses with an eye on the market in Arab countries. We have ignored that ours is a culture of nonviolence and this business does not fit in it at all. This has raised a big cry in the animal-loving community of Hindus and Jains. Here are some of their thoughtprovoking views. The first one is from "Jain Mitra," dated 15-Oct-98, pages 375-376. It describes "Alkabir," a major slaughterhouse in Andhra Pradesh. Maneka Gandhi also has talked about this one, at our Chicago Convention.
Personnel? Most of the people working here are Hindus. The Director, Subhash Sabarwal, is an NRI in Dubai, and his brother, Satish Sabarwal, manages the plant. The other principals are Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh (Dubai), Dilip Himmat Kothari, B.N. Raman, etc. Even though the main workers on cutting machines are from Kerala and Muslims from Mumbai, the administration, security, etc. consists mainly of Hindus. There are several other equally large (or larger) plants in India, owned and operated similarly by NRI's and Arab citizens in cooperation. The people working here are paid very handsomely. This is a big attraction. A monthly salary of Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 is common. At the site, there are many veterinarians, but their job is not to save healthy lives. Their only concern is to see that the meat does not carry any germs which may hurt the customers. In fact, there is a small army of government veterinarians, whose job is to see that healthy and useful animals do not get butchered. But these corrupt officials write false certificates according to wishes of Alkabir. You cannot easily enter Alkabir, because outside people are not allowed in there. Even the local veterinarians and police cannot go inside, so there is no question about the other local poor people even coming close to its boundaries . . . Security is tightened at nights with hunting dogs. Now the neighboring people do not even come close to it.
We get foreign exchange for meat. However, we also pay foreign exchange for chemical fertilizers, manure, urea, milk powders, etc. which cost several times the price of meats. Then why export meat? The government encourages certain businesses-industries with financial supports. The government has announced 100% supports for opening new slaughterhouses, and the agriculture department has already approved several slaughterhouses. The Indian meat fetches only 40% of international prices. Then what is the meaning of supporting this industry? The government argues that if we don't kill the animals, their population will go on increasing. However, according to the same statistics, the number of animals per capita is rapidly decreasing. The world trend is towards vegetarianism. The developed countries are learning the dangers of meat-eating. Britain has not opened any new slaughterhouse since 1980, whereas the Indian government is opening new slaughterhouses and modernizing the older ones. According to laws enacted to prevent cruelty to animals, it is considered a crime to treat any animal with cruelty (beating, over-burdening, inflicting pain, etc.). At the same time, however, butchering them is permitted! Does this make any sense? Central Food & Technological Research Institute (Mysore Government) has concocted a concentrated meat, with an objective to alleviate the shortage of 'quality' protein for masses. The government still thinks that meat provides superior proteins...
There should be a penalty for this atrocity. Religion is not ringing bells in temples. Religion is compassion and kindness. Protect the animals that are being packed in trucks for sending to slaughterhouses. Saving their lives is true religion. Our literature has always focused on nonviolence, our culture has always professed nonviolence, then why is our government now moving to violence? This butchery and bloodbath are a big shame to our nation. We can never feel proud for such activities. There is no prestige in such businesses. World peace can never be achieved on foundation of animal massacre. There was a time when we did not even sell milk - we just gave it free. Where is that Bharat gone? Today we have arrived at selling blood and flesh!