From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1998:
Faced with a choice between a rare chance for three representatives of ANIMAL
PEOPLE to visit India for the price of one, or a better chance to erase a budget deficit
before year’s end, we prioritized by considering which would be most valuable to our role
as an investigative newspaper.
Though sustaining solvency is self-evidently critical, we found we had no real
choice but to find out what was happening in India. Almost directly opposite to us on the
earth, scarcely anywhere could have proved more relevant or enlightening relative to the
state of humane work and wildlife conservation in North America.
We knew already that India has the oldest recorded humane tradition, is the only
nation which constitutionally recognizes a human obligation to treat animals kindly, has
more than half the world’s vegetarians, has more native mammals and birds than any other,
and is deeply involved in the struggle to protect endangered species.
With due respect to the economic clout of Japan and sheer size of China, we recognized
as well that India may be pivotal in determining the cultural, social, and moral
direction of all Asia. India has accomplished a perhaps unparalleled synthesis of westernstyle
democratic government and technological transition, still underway, with social stability,
lifting a growing percentage of her people out of dire poverty and illiteracy despite
rapid population growth that has only just begun to slow.
Read more
