ISSUES AND ETHICAL

IMPLICATIONS OF BEEF
MEAT PRODUCTION IN
INDIA

AMALA
SEBASTIAN
SYNOPSIS
•Indian beef export
•Relation between milk and beef meat
production
•Intensive production of meat and ethical
issues
•Ethical issues regarding transportation to
slaughter houses
•Rules of cattle transport
•Cattle smuggling in India
•Ethical issues of cattle slaughtering in
India
•Beef ban issue
 INTRODUCTION
•Beef is the third most widely
consumed and popular meat around
the world after pork and poultry.
•It is the culinary name for the meat
derived from bovines such as cows,
bull, and cattle.

.
 INDIAN BEEF
EXPORT
•India retains its top spot as the world’s largest
exporter of beef and has extended its lead over the
next highest exporter, Brazil.
•According to the data, India exported 2.4 million
tons of beef last year.
•Uttar Pradesh is the country’s largest meat
producer, followed by Andhra Pradesh and West
Bengal.
 BEEF PRODUCTION ISSUES
•The livestock sector emerges as one of the top
two or three most significant contributors of the
most serious environmental problems, at every
scale from local to global.
•The ethics of consuming food, including animal
produce, is a fraught topic for both animal welfare
and environmental damage.
•The vast scale of commercialized livestock
production is overwhelming.
 RELATION BETWEEN MILK AND BEEF PRODUCTION

The beef meat production in India is related to

the milk production.
•The cattle slaughtered are all old, infirm, sterile
and in all cases malnourished.
•. There are no "beef cattle" feedlots in
India, and as The Hindu explains, cattle in
India are not bred and raised specifically
for beef.
They are supplied to the beef
industry by : 1)the dairy industry
2)farmers who choose to sell
their cattle to a butcher after a
lifetime of:
• work.
• as soon as they are deemed
unsuitable for labour.
(such as when they break a leg, a
common occurrence when cattle
are forced to pull heavy loads.)
 INTENSIVE PRODUCTION OF MEET AND ETHICAL
ISSUES
•Intensive meat production raises further ethical issues, including
those related to animal living conditions.
•Most animals in these systems are made to lead miserable lives
so that their muscle and fat can be made available to humans at
the lowest possible cost.
•Modern forms of intensive farming apply science and technology
with the attitude that animals are objects for us to use.
•In systems which choose low cost over life, society tolerates
methods of meat production that confine sentient animals in
cramped, and arguably often very unsuitable conditions for the
entire duration of their lives.
•.
•Animal production in industrialized societies is based on
consumption of animals that have been fattened on
grains and other foods that we could have eaten directly.
•Animals are treated like machines that convert fodder
into flesh, but when we feed these grains to animals,
only about 10% of the nutritional value remains as meat
for human consumption
•For the sake of cheaper prices, there are other things
done to animals besides keeping them in cages for
industrial style farming.
•One such procedure is castration.
•cattles are routinely castrated in order to
reduce aggression and subsequent injury.
Methods of castration are either by blade or
rubber ring.
•At present, castration is carried out as a routine
husbandry procedure on young animals without
the use of anaesthetic or pain relief.
Male calves.
•Another is the early separation of
mother and young,
•the breaking up of herds,
ETHICAL ISSUES – TRANSPORTATION OF
CATTLE TO SLAUGHTER HOUSES

•Transportation of the beef cattle to slaughter

houses is more painful and miserable to those
silent animals than the pain of death.
•. They are crammed onto trucks
where they typically go without food,
water, or rest for the duration of the
journey, which can sometimes be
days
.
•Many cows collapse in hot
weather; in the cold, cows
sometimes freeze to the sides of
the truck until workers pry them off
with crowbars
•By the time the exhausted cows
reach the slaughterhouse, many
are too sick or injured to walk.
• These cows, known to the meat
and dairy industries as “downers,”
often have ropes or chains tied
•Of those animals who arrive at the
slaughterhouse healthy enough to
walk, many are frightened and don’t
want to leave the truck, so they are
shocked with electric prods or
dragged off with chains.
• “Uncooperative animals are beaten,
they have prods poked in their faces
and up their rectums,” says a former
USDA inspector.
• chilly paste is rubbed on the cattle’s
eyes to prevent them from sleeping
 RULES OF CATTLE TRANSPORTATION

nimal Transport Act (1429/2006

Chapter 2 - General conditions for transport
Section 5 - Transport of an animal (1)
An animal may only be transported by a means
of transport and in transport conditions where the
transport does not cause any undue pain, distress
or suffering to the animal. In addition, an animal
must be protected against injury and illness
during transport
Section 6 - Caring for the welfare of
an animal (1)
The welfare of an animal must be cared
for during transport. Water, suitable
feed and rest must be offered to the
animal at necessary intervals, taking
account of the animal species
transported, age of the animal, means
of transport, transport conditions and
duration of the journey as well as other
factors influencing the need of the
animal for water, feed and rest during
the journey.
Chapter 3 - Means of transport
Section 7 - General requirements (1)
The means of transport must be
sufficiently spacious, safe for the animal
and such that it prevents the animal from
escaping. The means of transport must
have sufficient floor area and height,
taking account of the animal species
transported so that the animals can
stand in a natural position and there is
no risk that they may get hurt by being
hit to the ceiling of the means of
transport. The means of transport must
Chapter 4 - Loading and unloading

Section 12 - Devices and equipment

used for loading and unloading (1)
Where necessary, suitable
equipment such as bridges, ramps
and loading lifts must be used for
the loading and unloading of
animals
 Cattle smuggling in India

The movement of cattle for slaughter and

processing from the states of India where 
cattle slaughter is illegal to those states where it
is legal as well as to neighboring countries such
as Bangladesh.
It is widespread in India, with some estimates
stating that over a million cattle are smuggled
every year.[1]
 ETHICAL ISSUES IN CATTLE
SLAUGHTER IN INDIA
Slaughter: ‘They Die
Piece by Piece’
Many animals are still alive and conscious
for as long as seven minutes after their
throats have been cut.
The cattles bleed to death during slaughtering.
They will be alive for a long even after hit by the knife
•cut the legs off completely
conscious cows.
• “They blink. They
make noises,” he says. “The
head moves, the eyes are wide
and looking around. … They die
piece by piece.”- a worker
 BEEF BAN IN
INDIA
•Although, many people simply enjoy their meat, some
others consider cow meat offensive, such as in
Hinduism, cow is said to be pure and it is a sin to kill
them to eat their meat
•The country is embroiled in a controversy regarding a
ban on slaughter of cows and the sale and consumption
of beef.
• In retrospect, this controversy has existed for many
decades now.
•The reason is apparently simple. Hindus, who form the
majority of the populace, consider the cow sacred.
•The cow, according to Hindu religious scriptures,
is the embodiment of the Feminine Divine and
motherhood.
•Slaughter of cows brings the greatest
misfortune, Hindu religious leaders claim.
• On the other hand, the Muslim and Christian
minorities consume beef extensively
•Since India gained independence from the
British, there has been a demand for banning cow
slaughter in the country and on consumption of
beef.
•Successive governments have resisted any
attempt to impose such a ban at a central level
due to the secular nature of the country and its
constitution.
•Some states, however, have succeeded in
implementing local legislation banning cow
slaughter.
•The beef ban in many states in India like UP has
led to many problems and bloodshed in many
places.
•People have started the ban in very serious
manner which has become extremely miserable
due to the formation of gau rakshaks.
•It is time for us to think about whether we should
take a religious concept to this extend.
•There are also many other problems that arose
due to the beef ban in India.
•These include economic and trade issues too.
The cattle traders in the traditional markets of
India are most affected.
CONCLUSION
•The ethical issue here is whether the
animal biomass could be produced without
suffering and because the killing does not
take place painlessly
• Though the above ethical issues are
important, one can also raise some counter
questions such as the fact that in
ecosystems animals eat each other.
•.
•In my opinion, as a secular country, nobody
have the right to instruct the citizens what to eat
and what not to.
• One religion should not enforce their ideals on
food to the rest of the religious group.
•Everyone have their freedom of choice.
•Both cattle and human have their own rights.
We should ensure that their requirement and
rights are preserved.
•India should adopt better and scientific
methods in meat industry
•standardize humane slaughter practices
REFERENCES
•LIVESTOCK AND LIVELIHOOD – THE
INDIAN CONTEXT-NITYA.S.GHOTGE
•LIVESTOCK BREEDING IN INDIA-
SUNDARESAN
•NEWSPAPERS- THE HINDU, INDIAN
EXPRESS
•INDIA TODAY SURVEY
•https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-f
ood/factory-farming/cows/cow-transport-slaugh
ter/
•https://awbi.org/?q=node/67
gracias