PETA India organised a grisly ‘human barbecue’ protest in Lucknow. The theme of the protest was ‘Meat is Murder’. PETA organised the protest in collaboration with the Aashray Foundation. The animal rights organisation said in a post, “All animals, including humans, feel pain and emotions — eating meat means eating the corpses of beings who didn’t want to die.”
According to PETA, “The shocking visual sent the message that all animals, including humans, are made of flesh, that we all share the capacity to feel pain and a variety of emotions, and that eating meat means eating the corpses of sentient beings who valued their lives and didn’t want to die.”
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Earlier in September, one of their activists lay down on a large plate with vegetables on it. It was to remind people that “no one wants to be carved up and served as food.”
PETA regularly comes up with such innovative protests to make their point. Recently, their activists in Mumbai wore pigeon masks for a day to send the message that pigeons are also Mumbaikars. The aim of the protests was to reverse the feeding bans in the city.
The activists say that “abruptly stopping their feeding after generations is causing them to suffer.” Furthermore, they say, “Replacing the feeding ban with reasonable feeding timings and cleaning schedules would show Mumbai respects tradition and leads practically and with compassion.”
PETA and its history of macabre protests
Nevertheless, this is not the first year that PETA has organised such a macabre protest. They organised the same last year as well. In 2024, activists lay down on the ground to mimic a package of frozen meat. The activists also smeared themselves with blood.
While their activism in cases such as Hindu practices of animal sacrifice and specific instances of animal brutality has yielded results, it’s unclear if they are achieving any success at all with regards to their overarching objectives.
