Anuradha Sawhney was the ex- Chief Functionary and the head of Indian operations of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India. She is an animal rights activist and was the Editor of the Indian edition of the animal rights magazine Animal Times.[1]
She took care of the media relations and management, including all communications related to Animal Rights and Welfare in India both within the country and to global press. She was also in charge of legal, research and reporting of animal rights and welfare in India
Anuradha grew up in Bokaro, where she attended school at the St Xavier's convent as well as at Sophia College, Bombay. While there she fed the various hungry animals she encountered. She also cared for various neglected and mistreated animals including a calf that had been left to die on a roadside.
She takes every opportunity to speak about animal rights. Her work with PETA widely varies from working with such celebrities as Raveena Tandon, Madhavan,[2] Celina Jaitley, and Shilpa Shetty, to going undercover to investigate cruelty and rescuing abused animals, to appearing in newspapers around the globe. Named as one of Femina magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women", she has received many honours, including a 2009 Women's Achiever award.
She was not raised as a vegan, but she became one once she realised how animals suffer in the food industry. She believes that "Billions of intensively-raised animals will end up on dinner tables this year alone. They are made of flesh, blood and bone and can feel love, happiness, loneliness and fear just like dogs and cats. Yet because they were born chickens or pigs or cows, these animals are denied everything that is natural to them. Chickens spend their brief lives in crowded conditions; many of them are so cramped that they can't even turn around or spread a wing. Most do not get a breath of fresh air until they are prodded and crammed onto lorries for a nightmarish ride to the abattoir. Hung upside-down, their throats are sliced open, often while they are still alive."
She was part of PETA India's vegetarian campaign, which teaches about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle.
Under Anuradha's leadership, PETA India emerged as the foremost animal rights organisation in India, that has also been recognised by the Limca Book of Records in 2 consecutive editions. PETA was invited to join the Food and Agricultural Divisional Committee of the BIS, PETA has framed 11 vivisection standards for the BIS and the transport and circus standards framed by PETA have already been approved and passed by the BIS, PETA joined the slaughterhouse sectional committee and submitted a revised slaughterhouse code, PETA has suggested amendments to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals act and rules and is now a special Invitee to the Legal Sub Committee of the Animal Welfare Board of India. She has actively participated to fight for freeing of animals from the Indian leather industry (which led to an international boycott of Indian leather by over 40 companies), milk industry and chicken industry. PETA India has rescue of over 100 animals, including lions and tigers amongst others, from circuses and zoos across the country and their placement in rescue centres. She has been supportive of the banning the entry of ? into the city of Mumbai and its neighbouring districts with 16 other states following suit and passing similar legislation.[3]
When she has been the Chief Functionary, PETA India has received the following awards
The following are awards that she has personally received for her achievements in the animal rights movement.
