Bakra Lives Matter: This Eid, Bhopal artisans introduce 'eco-friendly bakri' to ensure goats don't get slaughtered

In a unique campaign, a few artisans based out of Bhopal have made synthetic goats that they say can be used to ‘sacrifice’ on Bakri Eid.

The goats appear to be made out of a synthetic material and constructed using clay and grass.

Speaking to Free Press, Shekhar Tiwari, who leads the Sanskriti Bachao Manch said that the idea comes as a bid to save the environment. "We save water during Holi, avoid bursting crackers during Diwali, and even have changed the way we celebrate Nag Panchmi. This is not about religion. Both Hindus and Muslims eat mutton, but it would be a wonderful initiative to help our animals, as it'll only be good for the environment," he said.

This campaign may please People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who in 2019 started a campaign to stop sacrifice of goats, ahead of Bakra Eid festival. It put up billboards with a picture of a goat proclaiming "I am ME, Not Mutton. See the Individual. Go Vegan." It is also likely to amuse writer Shefali Vaidya, whose trend #BakraLivesMatter went viral on Twitter last week.

For those not aware of the backstory, PETA was in the news for all the wrong reasons on July 17. As part of a campaign for Raksha Bandan, PETA asked people to not harm cows, resulting in mass trolling by several sections of Twitterati.

Vaidya took to Twitter and slammed the animal rights outfit for targeting a Hindu festival and wrote, “‘This Eid-Al-Adha, sacrifice your ego, not innocent animals’. Said NO celeb animal rights activist EVER! #ThingsLibtardsNeverSay”, as a dig to the 2019 campaign. Notably, PETA had put up billboards with a picture of a goat proclaiming "I am ME, Not Mutton. See the Individual. Go Vegan." However, it later took them down.

Vaidya took to Twitter and slammed the animal rights outfit for targeting a Hindu festival and wrote, “‘This Eid-Al-Adha, sacrifice your ego, not innocent animals’. Said NO celeb animal rights activist EVER! #ThingsLibtardsNeverSay”

This led to the trend of #BakraLivesMatter on the micro blogging site. For those unversed, in 2019, PETA started a campaign to stop sacrifice of goats, ahead of Bakra Eid festival. It put up billboards with a picture of a goat proclaiming "I am ME, Not Mutton. See the Individual. Go Vegan." However, it later took them down.

The final straw came when PETA India responded to five questions Vaidya asked to which they replied with a barrage of tweets. "We cannot reply to all of your tweets, because we have other work to do. You want us to focus only on Eid, we challenged you to go vegan, and we engaged with you in jest too. That’s the culture of Twitter," begins the lengthy thread.

And while PETA India emphasises that they have "other work", this does not stop them from putting out 28 tweets in a thead -- something that many on the social media platform took a jibe at the animal rights organisation for. Incidentally, this has sparked a second flurry of tweets, with Vaidya soon responding to the posts with her own comments. In some of her tweets Vaidya also attached "proof" in the form of screen grabs.