Air India: Cruelty Shouldn’t Fly
Last year after a face-to-face meeting, Air India officials told PETA India in writing that the airline would refuse requests to transport animals to laboratories. It was cause for celebration – or so everyone thought. But now, because of pressure from animal experimenters, Air India has backtracked on the ban and resumed shipping animals for use in cruel laboratory experiments.
In support of our friends at PETA India, PETA UK members dressed up and made a plea for animals’ lives outside the High Commission of India in London today. In protest of Air India’s about-face on its ban on transporting animals to laboratories, volunteers reminded Air India officials that they are every bit as guilty of the pain, suffering and death that animals are subjected to as the experimenters who wield the poisons and scalpels.
Many of the largest and most well-known carriers in the world, including US Airways, Virgin Airlines, JetBlue, Hawaiian Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, EVA Air, FedEx and UPS, prohibit shipping animals to laboratories. Jet Airways, India’s second-largest airline, also recently committed to a ban on transporting animals slated for experimentation.
Please tell Air India and the Indian government – which owns Air India’s parent company – that you won’t fly with the airline so long as it transports animals for use in experiments, and urge officials to reinstate the ban now.