Money from illegal animal slaughter funding terrorism: Maneka Gandhi

‘We are the largest beef exporters in the world and also killing them for leather production. We are actually killing more animals than China, it is appalling!’ the minister for Women and Child Development said during a valedictory lecture at the India for Animals conference here.

Quoting a report submitted to Uttar Pradesh police four years ago, Gandhi, who is also a noted animal rights activist and environmentalist, claimed that the money earned through illegal animal slaughtering was going into terrorism.

‘It is going into terrorism, it is going into bomb making. It is going into killing us. Why we are allowing this? It is a trade of Indians. 

Do not blame a particular community for this,’ the minister claimed.

Gandhi said while members of one community sell its livestock, another slaughters it in their slaughter houses and asked people not to link animal slaughter to a particular religion or community.

India is illegally exporting beef to Bangladesh and that country claims of exporting about 160,000 tonnes of beef. ‘But as a matter of fact they (Bangladesh) do not own a single cow,’ she said.

The minister called on NGOs, volunteers and civil society to join the ‘save animals movement’ and urged them to set up informer systems to sound an alarm to prevent such trade.

‘Deer’s meat is available at many places in Rajasthan, even in Dhani (hutments)...I get such information while sitting in Delhi. Every animal organ like Horn, shelf?is illegally sold. Over 25,000 websites are full of illegal sale of animal organs,’ she said.