Use of sharp weapons and sticks
Participants tortured bulls with sharp weapons; struck them with whips, rods, sticks, and fists; and bit, twisted, and yanked their tails in the vaadi vaasal to agitate them and to force them into a menacing crowd.
Bulls pulled by nose rope
Frenzied men pulled on nose ropes so hard that the bulls’ noses bled, and several men jumped on frightened bulls at the same time. This causes the panicked prey animals severe psychological trauma and physical pain.
Some bulls managed to break out of the event area, injuring spectators and goring bystanders to death as they fled. Many onlookers beat the distraught bulls as they escaped the collection yard, and some recklessly jumped onto their backs, creating a perilous parallel jallikattu in unauthorised areas.
PETA India’s in-depth investigations, a surging death toll for both humans and bulls, and a bloody track record prove that regulations cannot prevent cruelty to bulls during jallikattu, nor can they prevent injury or death to the human participants and spectators. That is why the Supreme Court banned jallikattu in May 2014, upholding India’s Constitution, which mandates that every Indian citizen treat animals with compassion, and The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, enacted by the central government, which makes causing animals unnecessary suffering illegal.
Despite this, jallikattu events have once again been permitted to proceed in Tamil Nadu, and they have already begun leaving a new trail of carnage and devastation. Since the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, was passed last year, 3037 humans and at least 10 bulls have been injured and 43 humans and at least 14 bulls, and one cow killed in these violent spectacles. (Bull deaths and injuries often go unrecorded, so the exact number is impossible to verify.) One bull was so scared that he died of cardiac arrest, another perished from smashing into a train, and a third fell into a well while trying to escape the melee.
PETA India will not stop until bulls are freed from the cruelty of jallikattu, and we are challenging the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017, in the Supreme Court.
You Can Help Bulls!
Jallikattu events inevitably inflict immense pain and suffering on to bulls and endanger spectators. Please add your voice to help bulls.
