#Jallikattu is a tradition in which the stud bulls of the village and its surrounding villages are exhibited and the best stud bulls are crowned as winners. The winner is likely to be a strong, healthy, best-of-the-breed bull which will be deemed best for stud services. And the off-spring of the stud bull will most probably be a high quality bull/cow.
Stud services are still free in Tamilnadu. The poor families cannot afford to rear a non-revenue generating bull on their own. However, the poor usually have cows producing milk which is a source of revenue. Hence the whole village comes together and adopts a common bull which provides free stud services for all the cows of the village. This bull is designated as the 'Temple bull' which is fed and taken care of by the whole village. Apart from the temple bull, the stud service load is shared by a few more bulls that villagers who are more affluent may rear.
It is these bulls that participate in the ancient form of 'cattle show' called Jallikattu which is over 5000 years old and is one of the longest surviving human-animal contact sport. The bulls are released one-by-one and a lone, unarmed sportsman tries to embrace the bull by its hump for no more that 30 seconds or till the bull crosses a distance of about 50 feet. He is forbidden from holding its tail or horns or neck. Where is the room for torture?
Being Temple bulls, these bulls are considered sacred. Also the villagers believe that if a bull is hurt during a Jallikattu, then great hardship, like a severe drought/famine would befall the village. Hence, the villagers are very keen to ensure that no bull is injured during Jallikattu. So where is the chance for abuse?
This whole case has been aided and abetted by #PETA, which is an Animal Welfare Organisation running animal shelters in the US. According to PETA's website, they admit that they kill over 3 to 4 million animals, including innocent kitten, puppies and rabbits, every year! And it is the very same PETA that is crying about one bull that was killed in an accident while returning home after a Jallikattu! Is that not fishy? Why are PETA, HSI, AWBI, PFCI, PFA etc not willing to talk about horse racing? Is it because they cannot stand up to the mega-rich who run horse races or is it because there is not much money to be made for the Corporate companies, which are backing PETA & Co, by way of milk (who drinks horse milk anyway?), meat (do people eat horse meat in India?), artificial insemination (how many people own horses and how many will import horse semen for that matter?).
Tamilnadu had six native cattle breeds and one breed, Alambadi, has gone extinct purely because of the roadblocks created by the so-called 'Animal Rights Activists' backed by foreign-funded, foreigner-run organisations like PETA and those like PFA, AWBI, HSI, PFCI etc who have no knowledge about the local rural ecosystem and are run by western-brainwashed/funded people. They fail to comprehend that Jallikattu is the very glue that is holding the rural ecosystem of Tamilnadu.
Since Jallikattu has been banned, there is no demand for the stud services of these magnificient animals which have evolved along with us over thousands of years. PETA even advocates that all cows should be relegated to the forests!
How many of us are aware that Tamilnadu has one of the lowest farmer suicides in the country (nil in some years), despite being one of the most water deprived, arid states? A state where even drinking water is scare in most parts? It is because traditionally Tamilnadu farmers have been efficient livestock keepers.
Irrespective of the farm produce, the livestock keeps the farmer afloat. The Jallikattu ban strikes at the very heart of livestock keeping. If the ban continues, days are not far off when farmer suicides will become a daily affair, as it is in most other states of India.
The Supreme Court, Union government and the State Government should take immediate steps to revive the ancient cattle-saving sport of Jallikattu and ban foreign-funded NGOs like PETA, immediately.
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