Breaking News: Mumbai Deonar Slaughterhouse Investigation by PETA India Reveals Appalling Cruelty and Filth

In late June and early July of 2022, PETA India investigators visited Mumbai’s Deonar slaughterhouse, around which time an estimated 1.45 lakh goats and sheep and 10,000 buffaloes were traded. PETA India found that animals arrived from as far away as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan to be slaughtered – and the investigators documented shocking cruelty, filth, and rampant violation of animal protection laws.

The findings include the following:

• Buffaloes were killed in full view of other buffaloes.
• Buffaloes weren’t stunned before being killed – this means that their throats were cut with a knife while they were still conscious and able to feel pain.
• Workers did not check the animals were dead before beginning the process of peeling off the buffaloes’ skin.
• Workers handled the slaughtered animals’ body parts using bare hands and walked on blood-soaked floors barefoot.
• Piles of buffalo, sheep, and goat hides were left on roads or on the floor for hours.
• Dead goats, sheep, and buffaloes were left lying around at the animal market and transport areas.
• Animals were removed from trucks in a cruel fashion, resulting in serious injuries to goats and sheep.
• Goats were pitted to fight against each other by their sellers at the market.

Animals killed for their flesh and skin are every bit as intelligent and capable of feeling pain as the dogs and cats we cherish as our companions. They are inquisitive, interesting individuals who value their lives, love their families, and experience fear and pain. Yet the billions of animals killed for food and leather every year have little legal protection from cruelty. They are neglected, mutilated, genetically manipulated, put on drug regimens, housed and bred in ways that cause chronic pain and crippling deformities, and transported through all weather extremes before being killed in gruesome and violent ways.

The latest findings at the Deonar slaughterhouse confirm those of PETA India’s previous visits to the facility. Even though stunning is a requirement under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules, 2001, and the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulation, 2011, most Indian slaughterhouses do not stun animals prior to slaughter. And the Transport of Animals Rules, 1978, are also frequently violated.

Consumers buying meat and leather directly supports the misery animals endure at slaughterhouses. In rejection of this cruelty, more and more people in India and around the world are choosing to live vegan and refusing to eat and wear animals. In this technologically advanced time, it’s easy to find vegan meat and leather.