Over-crowding and injury have become the norm, due to the burgeoning trade in meat and skins for export. The report details the routine overloading of cattle onto rickety lorries, which career at breakneck speeds down pitted roads and across state borders to the country's few legal slaughterhouses - many animals arriving gouged by others' horns, crushed or suffocated to death. Cattle are also forced to march for hundreds of miles from town markets in Orissa and Tamil Nadu to state borders, and are denied even a drop of water or any rest en route. Cows who collapse from injury or exhaustion have tobacco or chili peppers rubbed into their eyes by the transporters trying to force them to stand and walk on. PETA has charged that the police regularly take bribes to look the other way as injured cattle are beaten and abused, and points out that sorely needed amendments to the Act continue to languish on the Prime Minister's desk.
International appeals continue to pour in to the Indian consulate from all over the world.
Since being tabled by Dr Kumar last week, the EDM has already gained the backing of a further 33 British MPs, and it is expected that many more will lend their support.