First of all let me tell you that I do not know much about Jallikattu or Cows or Bulls apart from what I have studied all those years ago in the Animal Husbandry chapter of my zoology text book.
So when a friend of mine pinged me and asked “You are a blogger. Why are you not writing about this issue?”
I just laughed. Neither do I have knowledge about it nor do I know what all political stuff PETA does. I know the whole story. But not the exact details.
The first person I could ask about this is my father. He had a cow when he was about 10 years old. He used to tell me stories about how she (Yes! I prefer to call the cow ‘she’ and not ‘it’) would play with him and how she treated him like one of her own kids.
When I asked him if Bulls were really being tortured and all, he said yes. Not all of them. But some of them are made to drink alcohol or were beaten so that they would run with that force. While there are cattle herders who treat them like their own family, there are also morons who do not respect any life form. While there are people like my father who still shed tears over a cow he had almost 50 years ago, there are also idiots who won’t feed/clean up after their own pets.
He also told me the following.
“Generally calves were let out to run around in their young age. This not only helped them with their growth but also let people apart from the family to be friendly towards them. That helped more with the whole process as well. But nowadays that is not possible in most places due to space constrain. Hence the bulls do not grow all fierce like they used to. Plus once upon a time people had a use for bulls/ox so they were not considered some sort of hindrance or a liability. And now… Well if a poor farmer could get money or any benefit from a bull he can just sell them off. He just can’t afford to grow a bull with the healthy feed and not get the same amount of usage in return”
He went on but you get the gist.
He was against Jallikattu. Because he has seen how some of the bulls were harmed. So according to him, even if one animal was harmed it ruins the whole concept of the sport. So he was happy that it got banned.
But this PETA saying it is harmful and hence they will ban it is stupid. So what about all the cattle being killed for beef or leather? Or what about the dogs and cats killed to fake mutton in restaurants? What about the ridiculously bred dogs that are in no shape to grow up in our climatic conditions? I mean there are so many animal cruelty crimes happening all over the country. Why target one?
I suppose that is why people are retaliating. They were too specific. And now they are getting pretty specific responses.
Again… I do not know what kind of organisation is this PETA. But I am hearing about it out of nowhere. Its almost like this character who just springs up in your group and advices you on why you should eat only vegetarian right when you are touching your mutton briyani is a military hotel.
Also the kind of reasons people give for the protests are funny. You are saying Jallikattu saves farmers? Well. You don’t need that sport to save farming. You need land and rain to save it. You need to promote healthier farming habits to save agriculture. I am really not sure how this once in a year happening sport is going to save something that has been deteriorating for as long as I could remember.
It saves indigenous breeds of cattle? I can’t comment on it. In a scenario where everyone wants a Delhi Pasu that will give 25l of milk a day, who in the world is going to encourage indigenous breeds that would probably give 10l of milk a day? (I do not know the exact numbers. Proper facts are welcome. I am just putting out my thoughts)
It is our identity. Va da… Va… While some of you guys are very much a pacha Tamilan, the other sudden Tamilans is whom I would like to ask something. Not to mock you guys. But do you know how many tamil years are there? Or can you list out the tamil months in order?
I am not saying that you should not raise your voice against something you think is wrong. But don’t make just one thing as our identity. We are much more than one sporting event. We are much more than a language or looks. Please don’t make this a mob mentality trending thing. That is just an insult to our race. This is a kind request. We do have a lot of traits and habits that makes us unique. If one thing is banned, let us promote/improve something else. Something that benefits more people. It is okay!
And this is just a collection of opinions from the small number of people who are a bit ignorant about the whole issue but would like to show their bit of support in their own way. I suppose this is my way.