PETA to approach college students to promote veganism

New Delhi, July 3  To promote veganism, PETA-India on Tuesday initiated a campaign to reach out to college students and highlight cruelty inflicted on male chicks and calves.

The campaign -- 'Save the boy child: Try Vegan' -- aims at encouraging students, especially freshers to go vegan and condemn the killings in egg and dairy industry of the male animals. Vegans consume only plant-derived foods.

The campaign will point out cruelty that male animals go through in the dairy and egg industry as they are deemed worthless because of their inability to produce eggs or milk, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said.

"Because male babies cannot be used for profit by the cruel egg and dairy industries as their subjugated female counterparts, they are typically chucked out like trash or killed," said PETA India CEO Manilal Valliyate. 

"PETA India will call on young people to condemn this cruelty and go vegan," he added

According to the findings of the PETA, male claves and other unwanted chicks are commonly killed by being ground up, drowned, burned, crushed, suffocated or even fed to fish while still alive by the egg and meat industries. 

"We have video proofs where these alive chick are fed to the fish in fisheries... the male calves are either abandoned in the streets, left to starve, or sent for slaughter," Valliyate told IANS, adding that the campaign will feature such videos in the colleges.

According to PETA, going vegan reduces the risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity.