BANGALORE, Nov 4: ``An ostrich lives upto the ripe old age of 70 years. And they want to kill it after it matures, at two to three years, for money. We do not want these people to use our country for slaughtering these big, beautiful birds, for the global market...''

As a small group of protesters gathered outside Hotel Ashoka, protesting ostrich farming for slaughter, Agriculture Minister C Byregowda inaugurated a one-day seminar on ostrich farming, organised by Global Ostrich (India) Pvt Ltd, on Monday.

Byregowda maintained that the industry was ideally suited to many arid zones in the State. He exhorted the organisers to take the protesters into confidence.

CCI Global Ostrich Group Vice Chairman Allan Fowler said that 99 per cent of a bird was used - its meat as food, its feathers as dusters in automobile and high-tech industries, its hide as fashionable leather, and its fat as oil in the cosmetics industry. Pointing out that ostrich meat was undersupplied to the extent of 90 per cent, he said that ``one bird's leather can fetch US $ 500, while the whole bird can fetch US $ 800.''

For the protesters, all this was gross greed. ``This is not cricket,'' screamed their placards. ``Do not turn a nation of farmers into a nation of butchers.'' Said Utham Chand of Prani Daya Sangh. Other animal welfare groups like People for Animals, SPCA, CUPA have also joined the protests under `The Animal Welfare Group.'

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