Fact Check - After uproar, PETA billboards promoting vegan Bakr Eid pulled down in Lucknow

Hyderabad: PETA-India's billboard promoting a vegan Eid Al-Adha in India has sparked a controversy.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PeTA India), last week, put up several billboards in Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, and Mumbai featuring a goat with the slogan "I'm ME, Not Mutton. See the individual. Go Vegan". Its objective was to reduce the killing of goats and sheep during the Eid Al-Adha which is set to be celebrated between 31 July and 1 August this year in India.

According to PETA's study of the market adjacent to the Mumbai's Deonar slaughterhouse, 1.24 lakh goats and 2,700 buffaloes were sold for sacrifice last Eid al-Adha besides the hundreds of animals that died during the transportation.

The billboards, however, have irked the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh. A maulana is reportedly demanding that PeTA remove the billboards and a few others have also complained to the Lucknow police commissioner.

Whatever the reasons, the billboards have not been removed in Lucknow which has ignited a flood of messages on various social media platforms demanding that PeTA prove it is secular and that it does not speak up only against Hindu festivals and traditions.

Fact Check:

The fact that the billboards have been installed in various cities in India is TRUE and that it has been removed in Lucknow is also TRUE.

PETA, however, has removed (or at least suspended) the blog post about setting up billboards in various cities.

The web cache of the articles can be read here.

The coverage of the same by OpIndia:

https://www.opindia.com/2020/07/peta-lucknow-hoarding-go-vegan-bakri-eid-goat/

When Muslims saw the billboard at Qaiserbagh crossing in Lucknow, they objected to its timing and filed a complaint with the police.

According to Op India, Islamic clerics opposed the billboards and claimed it hurt their religious sentiments. Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali, the president of the Islamic Centre of India, had even complained to the Lucknow police commissioner demanding the removal of PETA's hoarding, it said.

"Why has the hoarding been put up just ahead of the festival? It seems that these hoardings were deliberately put up in a mischievous attempt to hurt Muslim sentiments," the maulana said.

The Qaiserbagh police have also reportedly received two complaints demanding the removal of the hoarding.

Another report also said that other Islamic clerics had complained to the police and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about the PETA campaign.

Though India Tomorrow and Op India have reported that PETA and the police have pulled down the billboards, there is still confusion about the same.

PETA, meanwhile, officially announced that it had not agreed to the removal of the billboard.

Hence, it is TRUE that PeTA has installed billboards promoting vegan Bakr Eid. It is also TRUE that the billboards have been removed in Lucknow though who pulled them down is still a big question.