Harsha Doriya

For many years, Harsha Doriya has been committed to the protection of animal welfare. Today, she is senior campaign officer for the association World Animal Protection for India. Among her many responsibilities, she works to inspire people, governments and businesses to focus on the importance of animal welfare and its links to antimicrobial resistance.

Ms Doriya, first of all, let me thank you for accepting this interview with DV8 World News. I am personally delighted to have you with us today. Your commitment to wildlife is remarkable and leads me to my first question :

Could you introduce yourself and tell us more about your professional background?

Thank you for the warm welcome, Patrice. It is a pleasure to share my experience with viewers of DV8. I have been working in the field of animals since last 6-7 years. I started working for animal conservation and then thought of learning about the other side of the coin-animal welfare and protection. This has been a wonderful journey with plenty of hurdles of course.  

You have been working for the organization “World Animal Protection” for a little more than 3 years. Could you tell us what your job consist in ?

I joined World Animal Protection India in 2018 and I have been able to understand the animal welfare of farmed animals from deep within. I learned about how people, corporates and government are all integral part of the movement and animal welfare is poorly known subject in Asian countries when it comes to farmed animals and hence require a good understanding of the term and its importance as a whole.

Globally speaking, would you say that animal welfare has improved over the last few years or not really ? We often report in our journal on new laws protecting animals in many countries around the world such as England, France, Israel among others. Are we on the right track ?

Definitely! I would say in any case, something needs to start in some or other way for any movement to proceed further.  Things are improving for sure. From ban on fur farming in UK, Netherlands, Switzerland to Bolivia’s ban on all animals in circuses, EU and India banning testing cosmetics on animals, recognising animals as sentient beings by New Zealand, UK and Spain are few examples from animal welfare movement. However, this might be just a start to something amazing and much more good things are on the way.

What is your definition of “animal cruelty” ?

Animal cruelty is any form of intrusion to animals knowingly or unknowingly. People keep exotic pets and think it is okay to have them at their homes, give love them and thinking they are doing good for animals, though, it is not. All this doesn’t change the fact that it is still an animal cruelty.

Medecine, cosmetics, trade, tradition, poaching, countless occasions for animals to experience unbearable cruelty. Let us talk about medicine precisely. Do you really think that researchers can improve without making experiments on animals ? How could we replace it ?

Yes, it might be possible. Why do we have to follow traditional methods which actually affects a life – life of an animal. We can improve or probably reduce the impact. One such recent example is safe cancer therapy proposal shared by Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel to FDA (First Drug Developed Using No Animal Testing Submitted For FDA Approval | IFLScience). This process doesn’t require any animal testing. May be more such discoveries will follow and more people will accept this if success is shown enough.

Do you tackle animal testing in cosmetics ?

No, I haven’t’ work on that part yet but will be happy to explore the same. I myself try to use cosmetic products as much as possible which are animal friendly.

Regarding the global wildlife trade, we all know that it is not only extremely lucrative but also increasing. Why is it so ? According to you, what would it take to put an end to it ?.

Demand! Any supply is directly proportional to the demand in the market. People want to use wildlife products in different versions. They need to be made aware about the problem and link the problem probably directly to them. For example, how global wildlife trade has been circulating diseases across the nations over years. Apart from this, People need to know about elusive and lesser-known species which are target of this trade, and how we are going to loose them if the trade continues. Businesses need to be more responsible and stop using wild animals in their supply. Government rules should be robust and strictly implemented in the countries.

Don’t you think that sometimes some governments are playing a double game, trying to make as much money as possible out of this trade ?

There are two sides of a story and sometimes we are looking at the one which we want to. Yes, there are loopholes in advocacy and lobbying. Often big businesses are politically linked and hence the trade continues. “The annual global legal trade of wildlife has been conservatively estimated to value 119 billion USD of the year 2020”. This clearly states that countries are making money out of this trade. Who all are involved is still hard to say! But everyone is getting impacted due to trade. Some of them are impacted in positive way while others are in negative way.

Speaking of governments, do you get support from politicians ? It seems to me that only laws can change things in the right direction. What are your relationships with politicians in the various countries ? Do they help you ? Do you find them efficient ?

Rightly said! Laws are really important to tackle any issue. When it comes to animal laws, we have definitely strong laws like Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 which has been impactful in its own way. The laws are quite strong however, sometimes the implementation is not up to the mark and there when we come in picture – animal lovers who want to save the animal and remind the stakeholders of our existing strong laws. Animal world is not a new thing here, politicians have been using this terminology to seek support from public. Sometimes it works for the benefit of the animals as well.  Government supports depends on the importance and resources required to tackle the particular issue. The issue need to be presented in a way which is important enough for any country and conservation of its animals. 

Recently, we wrote an article about China and Africa strengthening their cooperation to struggle against wildlife trade. It seems a great advance to us. What is your opinion about this ?

Such collaborations are worth a praise. Countries need to join hands together to tackle global wildlife trade. There are alternatives and government need to promote and invest in them rather than depleting the gems of their country which can be used for boasting about it.

On the other hand, we have also reported on dog meat farms in Asia. I believe this is a problem you know well. Could you tell us more about it ? What do you do to try to stop it

Dog meat trade is horrific. I mean some people keep them as their family members, on another hand some people want to eat their meat! Dogs are intelligent beings and must be saved from such cruel conditions.

I have been working for projects in India only and there have been no such incident yet. There have been cruelty cases though, to which I personally respond through writing blogs, stories etc.  

Tradition weighs a lot in Asia and I believe it is still a root cause of animal suffering around the world. How do you cope with it ?

I do not agree to an extent here. Some traditions might be cause of animal suffering but not all of them. There are ample cases where traditions are interlinked with animal conservation and protection. So many animals like tiger, elephant, crocodiles etc. are linked to gods and goddesses and hence people want to conserve them. Whenever a case of animal suffering arise due to tradition, you need to tackle the situation in a way which not only save the animal but also keep the integrity of tradition alive.

Animal suffering is not the problem of the various organizations or governments only. Each and every citizen can play a part. What do you do to make people aware of animal welfare ?

The simplest way to make people aware of animal welfare is talk about it. Talk about it on social media, print media, with your colleagues, friends and family etc. This topic needs to come out of that box and must be shared with others and then only people will understand this term and its importance.

Have you noticed that people take more into account animal wellness in their consumer habits, in their life style choices or not really?

Probably but it might not be the real truth as people actually don’t know about animal wellness or welfare. Indeed, changing consumer perceptions might actually help to create awareness about animal welfare, but definitely that’s not the only cause. People are reading, watching and listening about animal suffering and don’t want to be part of it. I think, this is a positive start.

Nowadays, what are the fields that give rise to the worst animal suffering ?

I doubt that there could be a comparison about animal suffering. From captive tigers, poached rhino horns, elephant tusks, pangolin scales, exotic birds in cages to animal domestication like horses, donkeys etc. are all suffering, isn’t’ it? And hence I won’t compare anything as in my eyes, all the animals are suffering due to one species i.e. human.

Did it ever occurred that you had to take, let’s say, some “illegal” actions to save animals or to set them free ? If yes, in what occasions ?

Haha.. I guess plenty of times, but one such incident I can share with you is from 3-4 years back. I was travelling to another city, during night I could hear sounds of probably horses from a stable . And at that very moment, a goofy thought came in my mind that what if I open the gate of the stable and shout loudly ..you are free beautiful souls.

I am done with the interview, Ms Doriya. I have no more questions but maybe, you would like to add something ?

Just one thing may be, we “humans” are part of this nature not someone who has right to lead the planet. The moment we start thinking that we share the space with millions of other species, it will be a beautiful world.

Thank you once again for the time you have granted us.