This is a follow up to the earlier posting “India: Last day for comments on India’s Meat Export Policy.” 

Below is the email I’ve sent to Mr. Tiwari, (Shri R.P. Tiwari, Deputy Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat) requesting a review of India’s Meat Export Policy:

Dear Mr. Tiwari,

I have visited India many times and profoundly admire India, her culture and her people.

Please ensure that there will be a review of India’s Meat Export Policy, which is harmful to both animals and people and which runs counter to the most ancient traditions of the Indian people.

Having an optimistic outlook for the future of the human race becomes more difficult when even India, the kindest of all nations, cannot maintain her age-old traditions of compassion and reverence for life.

It is painful to watch India give up her noble spiritual traditions, to which she has remained true for thousands of years, in exchange for the short-sighted “modern” view of animals as dispensable — and profit (the profit of just a few) as all-important.

The export of meat leads to immense suffering for the animals being transported and then slaughtered. It deprives the Indian people of much-needed water, grains, and vegetables, all of which could be available in abundance if they were not being misused to raise beef and other meat products.

Meat raised for local consumption only and not for export, would involve far fewer animals and would allow for a far greater voice for the Indian people, many of whom have been and remain vegetarian, to seek the humane treatment of animals, the abolishing of animal slaughter, and the doing away with factory farming, which is exceptionally cruel and unnatural.

Thank you for considering these viewpoints and for supporting a return to the compassionate principles enshrined in India’s Constitution, laws, and traditions, so that India may once again set an example for the world to follow.

Sincerely,

Sharon St Joan

Photo: Sharon St Joan / Some of over one hundred bulls rescued in 2012 by Blue Cross of India, from illegal transport on the way to slaughterhouses.