Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
Good News! India Bans import of Cosmetics Tested on Animals, November 14, 2014
A huge victory for animals - the Indian government has just announced a ban on the import of animal- tested cosmetics!
This news comes after intensive efforts by PETA India, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and others and will save millions of animals from being blinded, poisoned and killed in cruel and useless tests for products sold to India’s billion-plus population. The India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare made its decision public in The Gazette of India today and will implement the ban in November.
The compassionate move brings India up to speed with the European Union and Israel, which have already banned the sale and marketing of animal- tested cosmetics. Earlier this year, animal testing for cosmetics was banned in India. Now, companies that want to sell cosmetics in the country won’t be able to conduct cruel tests elsewhere, either.
Just last month, it looked like the existing ban on animal testing for cosmetics could be under threat from a group of international companies - including NIVEA, Johnson & Johnson and L’Oréal - which are members of the Indian Beauty & Hygiene Association. Thank you to everyone who wrote to these companies to help make sure that didn’t happen.
Congratulations to PETA India and everyone else who was involved in achieving this immense victory for animals. It’s a message to the whole world that India will not tolerate blinding bunnies for shampoo, mascara and other such products - and this ruling now gives an upper hand to businesses that use superior, human-relevant, non-animal testing methods.
“Canvas Shoes in Indian Schools,” by Liz Miller
“Recently, India’s Central Board of School Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) approved a proposal by Mrs. Maneka Gandhi to replace leather shoes with cruelty-free canvas alternatives as the required footwear in Indian schools. The proposal states that black leather shoes were introduced as part of a required school uniform during Britain’s colonial rule of India, and that by replacing them with canvas shoes, the country can choose its own, more eco-friendly option. Representatives of CISCE say that the move will benefit schoolchildren and their families, as leather shoes require routine cleaning, polishing, and maintenance while canvas shoes are more comfortable and durable”.
“Thanks to Maneka Gandhi,” by Ravi Pandya
“Thanks be to Maneka Ghandi for this humane and compassionate act and setting an example at home and abroad. We were privileged when Maneka-ji came to Bristol, UK on Mahatma Gandhi-ji’s birthday anniversary and celebrate his legacy of Ahimsa day, Non-violence and non-aggression day were combined with World Farm Day and St. Francis of Assisi day on 2nd of October.
Indeed, Maneka-ji’s father was in British Military and she was well liked by late House of Commons Speaker, Lord Weatherhill a vegetarian. Hence, it would be a good idea if Maneka-ji can establish links with new administration in UK and help them to follow Indians green and humane example in schools with shoes and satchels which are not made of dead flesh of blessed animals and so UK government can establish loud and clear its green and humane credentials to save the world.”
“The World Peace Diet,” by Dr. Will Tuttle, a Vegan, Animal Rights Activist, Author, & Forceful Speaker
‘“One of the most important principles that we are called to understand by our inherent yearning for meaning and wisdom is that whatever we sow, we will eventually reap. As I emphasize in The World Peace Diet, our routine abuse of animals for food inevitably boomerangs; we end up experiencing what we inflict on them. It’s so obvious that it’s amazing more people don’t notice it and talk about it. Lately, we’ve been witnessing the emergence of more and more mandatory vaccinations, for example. The cows, pigs, and other animals confined for food do not have a choice as to which vaccinations and drugs will be forced on them. They are injected with dozens of different drugs, hormones, and antibiotics not for their benefit, but for the benefit of those who dominate and use them. Their sovereignty and purposes are completely stolen from them.
How do we think, as a culture, that we can steal the sovereignty, purposes, and freedom of billions of fully sentient beings whose suffering is, to them, as significant as ours is to us, and miraculously escape the consequences of this violent behavior? As we enslave others, we become enslaved ourselves. The net is ever tightening, and the mass media lulls us into complacency, while the ruling elite scares us, and make us like infants scream and run to our parents for security and protection.
The system infantilizes us by forcing us, like perennial infants, to drink milk our entire lives, to be taken care of by authoritarian medical and governmental forces, to seek happiness in consuming meaningless and distracting products and entertainment. Like infants, we are fed foods of violence without comprehension, and it never occurs to us to take responsibility for our violence toward others, to question the official stories that are drilled into us and that enslave and numb us and steal our freedom and sensitivity.
Every human being - like every living being - is a manifestation of the light of eternal consciousness. Each of us has a purpose and we all deserve respect. We experience self-respect and are respected to the degree that we respect others. We celebrate lives of freedom to the degree that we allow others to celebrate their lives freely. Our routine daily violence toward millions of animals for food is enslaving us and destroying our freedom.
The only lasting solution is veganism: More important are our efforts to deepen our understanding and practice of vegan living, of ahimsa (non-violence), which is the essence of veganism, and to advocate vegan living as earnestly and skillfully as we can. There is nothing we can do that’s more essential for freedom, peace, sustainability, and for our health and happiness. We are all interconnected. What we do to others, we do to ourselves. We see it everywhere when we awaken from the mass hypnosis of the military-industrial- meat-medical-media complex of materialism and fear. The most effective way to resist the oppression of the established order, and work to transform it, is to embody and spread the vegan message. Without this our efforts are merely ironic - we want for ourselves what we refuse to give to others. Our culture will be a vegan culture of celebrating respect for all life, or an alternative that is painful to contemplate.”
