PETA Founder Held in India Over Bullfight Protest

[bluesand]

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46512/story.htm

CHENNAI, India - 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". Organised 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.

[pkk]

She walks the walk.

[leminchyl]

out of all the places to be in prison, india doesn't hit the top of my list of places i want to go.

[rainforests1]

I don't understand what blindfolding a statue does to help the cause. I still fully support PETA, but I can't say I agree with her doing this.

[TBlack]

I don't get it either. If it's a play on 'turning a blind eye' she seems to be insulting a man who is a bit to dead to do anything or insulting an entire nation which isn't a brillant idea.

[Rincewind]

Gee, that must really be helping the animals. Wow.

[pkk]

Why some of you are so negative about her actions escapes me. She went to India to protest an animal event in which hot chile powder is thrown onto the faces and into the eyes of bulls. She, to make a point, blinfolded a statue of a revered Indian religious symbol and went to jail for it - in a foreign country no less.

Insulting the people who stage this event is a good thing. It makes the point that their event is cruel. To listen to some of the posters in this thread, one might get the idea that cruelty is preferred over protest.

[TBlack]

Well I didn't intend to imply that cruelty is preferred over protest. I just think there are better ways to do things.

I don't really think that defacing (even temporarily) the statue of a revered figure is the right way to go here. The connection between the type of event and the type of protest seems a bit fuzzy to me. I'm assuming it is meant to say blinding bulls is as bad as blinding Gandhi. But then it still leaves me scratching my head.

Insulting the people who stage this event may be good thing but by defacing a statue of Gandhi you're insulting a very large group of people who owe their independence to him. I'm English and I certainly wouldn't like to have been insulted because some people over here used to legally hunt foxes.

I don't for a second think that what is going on at this even is right I just think protests should be matched to the thing they are protesting. I do think it is sometimes necessary to insult people in protest but I don't think the best course of action is the one that insults a lot of people including those that aren't involved in the practice at all.

[DMZdogs]

I think that as the statue is supposed to represent Gandhi, she blindfolded the statue so that "Gandhi" wouldn't "see" what was going on. It was a statement that one of their most revered leaders would not approve of bullfighting, so maybe the people should think again about what he stood for and what they are doing. That's my take on it anyway.

[superfuxxor]

im vegan and i think peta is insane.

[leminchyl]

im vegan and i think peta is insane.

they are insane, but they know how to get attention

[Kiramiabee]

Peta really make me embarresed to be vegan. An idiot Peta member discided to 'liberate' all the sick animals from my local vet once. He was bitten by a german shepard that was in after being hit by a car, the genius thought "I'll pull the big dog out, even though he's all bandaged upand incredibly grouchy" Haha, he deserved to be bitten.

But in general im very anti Peta.

[subzer0]

Shes a ****in weirdo and an embarrassment to normal people. Our version of Pat Robertson.

[Beachbnny]

Shes a ****in weirdo and an embarrassment to normal people. Our version of Pat Robertson.

OMG :lol: That last part made me laugh! What's funny is that Pat Robertson lives in the same city as PETA... I know this cause I live here too. :-/

[Bof]

There's a radio interview with Dan Mathews (http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/stories/s2069193.htm?queensland) which gives some insight into PETA's thinking.
(Can be heard online or downloaded).

[kazyeeqen]

Well I didn't intend to imply that cruelty is preferred over protest. I just think there are better ways to do things.

I don't really think that defacing (even temporarily) the statue of a revered figure is the right way to go here. The connection between the type of event and the type of protest seems a bit fuzzy to me. I'm assuming it is meant to say blinding bulls is as bad as blinding Gandhi. But then it still leaves me scratching my head.

Insulting the people who stage this event may be good thing but by defacing a statue of Gandhi you're insulting a very large group of people who owe their independence to him. I'm English and I certainly wouldn't like to have been insulted because some people over here used to legally hunt foxes.


She blindfolded the statue to symbolically shield Gandhi from the horror of the bull-baiting.

It makes sense to me that one would bring attention to the fact that one of the most revered men of India was firmly non-violent and against animal cruelty. She pointed out that Gandhi would not approve of this activity. I think it was a great protest.