‘Take a Vow Against Cruelty’: National PETA India Billboard Campaign Calls For Horse-Free Weddings
Ahead of wedding season, PETA India has erected billboards in Agra, Ajmer, Amritsar, Raipur, and Surat alerting the public to the cruel practice of using painful spiked bits to control horses at weddings and urging couples to forgo using suffering animals during their special day.
Court Road, Rani Ka Bagh, Amritsar Cantonment, Amritsar
Great Eastern Road, Tatyapara, Mominpara, Raipur
Gaurav Path near Chaupati Walkway, Ajmer
18 Pandit Radharaman Satyavichitra Road, Radha Nagar, Sikandra Chouraha, Agra.
Center Point opposite Civil Square Flyover Ring Road Sangrampura, Surat
Rule 8 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules, 1965, prohibits the use of spiked bits – yet PETA India inspections have found these torture devices embedded over a centimetre deep in animals’ mouths, ripping their lips and tongues and causing extreme pain, bloody wounds, immense psychological trauma, and lifelong damage.
A few years ago, late actor and comedian Raju Srivastava starred in a video to highlight the suffering of horses used for weddings and other ceremonies.
As public awareness of the cruelty of spiked bits grows, numerous wedding parties are now opting for horse-free baraat options, from simply walking to arriving in fancy cars and even dropping in by helicopter. Celebrity couples whose weddings were horse-free include Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Rukmini Sahay, Zaheer Khan and Sagarika Ghatge, Angad Bedi and Neha Dhupia, Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, Anand Ahuja and Sonam Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, Raghav Chadha and Parineeti Chopra, and Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal.
