COIMBATORE: A group of activists conducted a demonstration at the Race Course here on Saturday urging the people to stop consuming animal products and facilitate freedom for animals.
They held placards that read "Dairy Destroys Motherhood," "Meat is Murder," and other powerful messages. The activists chanted slogans like "Animals deserve freedom just like us."
As part of the event, one activist sat inside a cage to make people empathise with the plight of animals, highlighting how humans deny freedom to animals while enjoying their own. The activists explained how animals are used and exploited in various industries, such as artificial insemination of cows and buffaloes, separation of calf from mother in dairy farms, debeaking, and crushing one-day-old male chicks.
"The reason so much cruelty, abuse, and violation is happening is because we view animals as resources and not sentient beings," said Samaran Thamarai, one of the organisers.
Mini Vasudevan, one of the organisers, added, "Casteism, racism, and many other prejudices inflict suffering on fellow humans. Similarly, our belief that we are superior to animals and can do what we want to them, pick and choose which animals have the right to live and which don't, is causing unimaginable suffering to billions of animals - a form of discrimination called speciesism."
(Speciesism denotes the assumption of human superiority that leads to the exploitation of animals.)