Palak Tiwari Is a ‘Mermaid’ in New Pro-Vegetarian PETA India Campaign
Mumbai:
Perched on a rock as a mermaid about to be caught in a net, actor Palak Tiwari kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month (October) by starring in a new print campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India urging everyone to relate to who is on their plate and let fish be in the oceans where they belong. The eye-catching campaign, which debuted today, on World Animal Day (4 October), was shot by leading photographer Tejas Nerurkar, with hair and make-up by Meghna Butani and styling by Maneka Harisinghani.
“Aquatic animals deserve to live safe in their ocean homes just as much as we deserve to live safe in ours,” says Tiwari. “My friends at PETA India and I are asking everyone to have a heart for sea life and opt for fish-free fare only.”
Today, scientists have confirmed that fish feel pain and have friends. They have long memories and cultures and use tools. Some woo potential partners by creating intricate works of art in the sand on the ocean floor. Yet more fish are killed for food each year than all other animals combined. They’re impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted – often while they’re fully conscious.
Each year, the fishing industry also kills vast numbers of non-target animals (referred to by the industry as “bycatch”), including 720,000 seabirds, 300,000 whales and dolphins, and 345,000 seals and sea lions, and 100 million sharks and rays are also killed by fishing and as bycatch.
Palak was last seen in Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan and will appear next in The Virgin Tree.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
