The January protests in the state of Tamil Nadu highlighted the agitation of locals over Jallikattu ban. Apparently, they felt their freedom was being violated and felt insecure over not being able to practise their age-old custom.
Back in 2014, Supreme Court had given a full fledged judgment over Jallikattu’s ban and the protests were to force the Tamil Nadu government to go against it and re-instate Jallikattu.
Now, the debate doesn’t end here. After numerous people supported the ban on grounds of animal violence, the vegetarians out there started posting things like, “What? You’re supporting the ban? But hey, you eat meat.”
This is the sole point why I’m penning down my opinion on this.
No, I don’t intend to defend myself by this article and neither is this to bash the vegetarians out there. Analyse my prerogative which I feel is based on sound and logical arguments :
So to start off, I’d like all the vegetarians to answer a set of questions for me :
First, do you know why deforestation is looked down upon but not cutting of plants/trees which were cultivated for human usage in the first place?
Second, do you realize that plants are classified as a living part of the existent ecosystem, as well?
Third, do you know how much a cow or any other animal which provides milk, suffers during the process of milking?
If your answer to all these questions was yes, then you my friend are an ignorant snob who wishes to ride the traditional bandwagon and then portray a false sense of empathy against animals. And if it was no, I have no issues in enlightening you.
As communities across the globe, we have accepted the choice to consume meat as a nutritional and cultural decision. And it is because of this choice that an entire industry is in place which raises animals for consumption and they’re bred specifically as per their requirement.
Now, just because I’ve been raised as a part of that meat consuming population doesn’t mean I love to inflict harm on animals or harass them or torture them before consuming them. Right from day 1, we’ve been taught that meat is a source of proteins and how it should be a part of the balanced diet routine.
If someone asks you to stop consuming milk as it harms animal life and is a form of their version of make-believe mainstream animal abuse, will you stop consuming milk?
Or, will you stop consuming any product which has a dairy based source? Gotta be a negative on that, right? Same goes for plants. If fruits come from trees, so should we all stop consuming fruits calling it flora abuse?
Referring to someone as an animal abuser based on the choice of his eating habits is arguably the most disillusioned thing one could do which is why even non-vegetarian have come in the support of Jallikattu due to the dangerous and harassing nature of the festival towards the animals involved in it.
And in any case, this is not a vegetarian vs non-vegetarian argument.
What must be realized is that all of us need to agree that exhibitionism of any sort of animal harm, be it minor or major is equivalent to adding fuel to the fire to portray our image as stupids.
Think smart, be smart. If you’re judging a “meaty” situation, make sure you use the meat in your brain to analyse it first rather than forming an opinion.
You’d also like to read: FlippED: Is Allowing Jallikattu In Tamil Nadu Justified? Our Bloggers Fight It Out!
This is the most stupidest article that I’ve ever seen. So, the culture you’ve been taught to slaughter animals for ‘protein’ consumption is right and the culture that Tamilians were taught about Jallikattu is wrong? What kind of hypocrisy is this? Deforestation you say? Animal agriculture and meat consumption are significant contributors to global warming. Why? Because you need to feed off proteins from those artificially bred animals causing deforestation(for food) which is more than the amount of tress cut for vegatarians for direct protein consumption. And yes, not only vegeatrians but all humans must stop drinking milk of other animals which are there for their kins. Humans are the only species that drink milk of other animals. And the argument that humans need to kill animals to maintain correct number in the ecosystem. Like what?? If you could feed and slaughter 19 billions of chickens,1.5 billion cows,1 billion pigs every year outnumbering ‘ethically grown’ farm animals and 3x more than the humans then Earth could easily feed 7B people (without feeding off animals). Don’t you think? And yes non vegetarians are animal abusers. What’s your excuse in killing a healthy animal for your own food and not calling yourself an animal abuser? Just because your culture says so? In that way your protest against Jallikattu is also invalid as it’s cultural. It’s good that you are doing a part against animal violence but you don’t need to justify yourself anti animal abuser. Even vegetarians are hypocrites like myself and we accept it. Some of us are in the process of turning into vegans. I think there’s no excuse for not becoming a vegetarian in a country where it’s cuisine supports vegetarian foods unless you want kill animals for pleasure directly or indirectly. Our mere existence causes harm to the ecosystem. It’s on our hands if we want to minimise or maximise it. And vegans are exactly doing what it means to reduce the harm.