International animal welfare organisation - World Animal Protection launched their city-wide 'Better Dairy' campaign in New Delhi on Saturday, October 19.
India is home to over 299 million cattle, 90 million of whom live in urban and peri-urban areas. The millions within city limits suffer gross atrocities every day.
The campaign includes a unique ice cream cart that depicts the cruelty and suffering faced by these animals in urban and peri-urban dairies.
The first stop of the ice cream cart was at Dilli Haat where hundreds of people gathered to understand the problem and get involved in ending the plight of dairy animals. The ice cream cart will travel to different parts of Delhi to spread awareness about the suffering of dairy animals.
Through what is termed as the 'Menu of Cruelty', World Animal Protection wants to bring to light the five freedoms that are being denied to these dairy animals.
"This is an important initiative where we want to show people the cruelty being endured by dairy animals in urban and peri-urban dairies. People should know what is really inside their milk. It contains the suffering of these dairy animals," said Gajender K Sharma, Country Director, World Animal Protection India.
An estimated 50 million dairy animals suffer every day in India and a significant number of these suffer the worst cruelty as they live in unacceptable conditions in these urban and peri-urban dairies.
They are often confined to large dark rooms without windows or natural light, are permanently tethered with barely any room to move, they lie in their own faeces all day without access to clean water, good quality feed or any healthcare.
World Animal Protection is working closely with dairy companies to ensure that milk is not sourced from urban and peri-urban dairies. Due to their efforts and the commitment by the companies, better welfare is now possible for over 526,000 animals.
"Till now six dairy companies have signed a formal commitment that they will not source milk from urban and peri-urban dairies. But more needs to be done. Some major companies are yet to give that commitment and we are working with them to ensure that they too commit to high welfare dairy products," he added.
The importance of animal welfare across supply chains is also evident internationally as seen in the global Business Benchmark for Animal Welfare (BBFAW), which covers more than 100 of the largest food companies, including Fonterra, Nestle and Groupe Danone.
Locally, recent visits to Indian rural farms implementing the minimum dairy welfare requirements have realized a range of important benefits. Not only are their cows in good condition, loose housed, with continual access to water, comfortable bedding and shade but they are also producing more milk and are in better health.
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