Sania Mirza shows us her ugly side to welfare of animals

Sania Mirza has been an inspiration to an entire generation, in more ways than one. Which is why it was surprising to see a post pop up on social media, showing her supporting an animal rights group campaign on one hand, as well as a large poultry company on the other (it was an announcement made two years ago).

Agreed, she was doing an “adopt, never buy” campaign for the group in relation to pets, and that doesn’t indicate her being vegetarian at any point. However, supporting a large-scale poultry industry means also backing cruelty to hens at an extraordinary level.

As someone who’s worked on animal advocacy, I have been to several factory farms, for both egg-laying hens and broiler chickens. In broiler farms, chickens are crammed into airless, windowless barns, pumped with antibiotics and overfed until their bodies cannot take their weight and their legs snap beneath them.

At least, their lives are short, six to eight weeks, unlike those of egg-laying hens, who are forced to lead claustrophobic lives in battery cages, smaller than a standard A4 size paper. Extremely sociable birds, these hens can barely stand up, let alone turn around.

Jonathan Safran Foer illustrates this point in his book, Eating Animals, “Needless to say, jamming deformed, drugged, overstressed birds together in a filthy, waste-coated room is not very healthy. Beyond deformities, eye damage, blindness, bacterial infections of bones, slipped vertebrae, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, slipped tendons, twisted lower legs and necks, respiratory diseases, and weakened immune systems are frequent and long-standing problems on factory farms.”

There are alternatives to stressful and unhealthy factory faming practices. Last year, McDonald’s announced that it will phase in the purchase of its eggs from only cage-free suppliers in the USA and Canada. They are doing the same in South Africa, Latin America,and the UK.

Similarly, Walmart announced that it would source its eggs from cage-free farms by 2025 in the USA, and Burger King made a similar commitment in Latin America.

Of course, cage-free doesn’t completely translate to cruelty-free, but it does reduce the suffering of hundreds of thousands of hens.

Yet, companies in India, including McDonald’s, haven’t announced any such policies. Surprising, given that now cage-free and free-range eggs are available in stores, which clearly demonstrates that consumers are interested in supporting cage-free eggs.

Vencobb Chicken, the brand Sania endorses, can commit to basic animal welfare policies, such as converting all its slaughterhouses to Controlled Atmosphere Stunning practices, install windows to provide the birds with natural light and add environmental enrichments, test slower-growing birds, and provide more space per bird.

As brand ambassadors, celebrities have power. Their engagement can draw attention to the violation of rights in any form, and it also can persuade people to switch to cruelty-free produce.

Celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Paul and Stella McCartney, Nandita Das, Gul Panag, Rahul Bose have gone that extra mile for the causes they support.

Sania has also adopted a rescued cat who was blind in one eye, and that in itself is admirable.

Perhaps, she will join the brigade in convincing the brand she supports to adopt an animal welfare policy.

Also read: India's cruelty towards chickens is unbearably horrifying

(The author of this piece did not wish to be named.)