[Onthebarricades] UK: Religious intolerance targets Hindus - sacred bull at risk

[Andy]

Latest religious intolerance in Britain...

The petty administrative rules in question are formed for the farming industry, on a view of animals simply as property.  This in itself is an abusive attitude - and doubly so when applied outside its context, to a sacred animal in this case, or to companion animals, endangered animals and so on - a demand that "someone's" animal be viewed as merely "their property" even if they do not see it in such terms, and not only this but as alienable property.

Freedom of religion - which necessarily includes respect for sacred places and beings - is a basic liberty, whereas the desire to "eliminate rather than minimise" any risk of a disease spreading to farm animals is a pretty low-level administrative desire, principally an efficiency goal - that the latter is put before the former is proof of an absolute distortion of relations, of a statism which sees itself as unlimited, a state theocracy in which petty regulations are themselves taken to be sacred.

The state fails to respect basic liberties if it is INCONVENIENT for it to do so, if it requires it to actually ACT on the perspectives and desires of others and not simply to do what "seemed best" in abstract from these.  

Unbelievable religious intolerance - it is as if the recognition of freedom of conscience had never happened, as if the state still only recognises its own preferred religion.  Not satisfied with waging war on global Islam, the state now sees fit to commit sacrilege against Hinduism, and for the pettiest of regulative reasons!

Not to mention the animal rights issues of killing an animal which is not even ill, just on the off-chance that it might spread disease!

http://newsbox.msn.co.uk/article.aspx?as=adimarticle&f=uk_-_olgbtopnews&t=4023&id=5999482&d=20070726&do=http://newsbox.msn.co.uk&i=http://newsbox.msn.co.uk/mediaexportlive&ks=0&mc=5&ml=ma&lc=en&ae=windows-1252

 

26/7/2007 9:24:59 AM 
( Source: Reuters) 




Shambo the sacred bullock gets brief reprieve 


By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Hindu worshippers turned away officials who came to take their temple's sacred bullock for slaughter on Thursday after it tested positive for bovine tuberculosis.

About 100 protesters said prayers as a veterinary inspector and two police officers arrived at the remote temple in southwest Wales to remove six-year-old Shambo.

Despite impassioned appeals to save the bullock, its fate was sealed in the courts earlier this week when judges ruled that it should be put to death because of the risk to livestock.

Cows are sacred to Hindus and more than 20,000 people signed a petition to save Shambo.

The black Friesian, wearing a colourful garland of flowers, is being kept in a specially built straw-filled shrine.

"Our religious laws prevent us from assisting in the killing of any life and so we will not help the inspectors remove Shambo," a spokesman for the Skanda Vale community said. "He will remain in his enclosure and they will have to physically desecrate a temple and an act of worship to get him.

A spokesman for the Welsh regional government said it would seek a warrant to gain access after its officials were turned away.

"We were aware this may happen but we have to be denied access before we can obtain a warrant," the spokesman said. "The community were informed that if access was refused a warrant would be sought.

Officials ordered the animal's slaughter earlier this month under tight rules to help prevent the spread of infection.

Shambo's keepers, who say the animal is healthy and that its slaughter would be "an appalling desecration of life", earlier failed in a long legal challenge to overturn the decision.

The National Farmers Union in Wales says no bull should be exempt from the rules and that to spare Shambo would be unfair on all those farmers who have had to see their stock slaughtered.


http://newsbox.msn.co.uk/article.aspx?as=adimarticle&ae=windows-1252&f=uk_-_olgbtopnews&t=4023&id=5820910&d=20070704&do=http://newsbox.msn.co.uk&i=http://newsbox.msn.co.uk/mediaexportlive&ks=0&mc=5&ml=ma&lc=en

Only high court can save Shambo the sacred bull now 


By Simon Rabinovitch

LONDON (Reuters) - A Welsh Hindu group has launched a last-ditch legal bid to stave off the slaughter of their sacred bull, which has tested positive for bovine tuberculosis.

After months of protests to save six-year-old Shambo, the temple bull of the Skanda Vale Hindu community in the Welsh town of Llanpumsaint, the regional government ordered his slaughter on Monday because of health concerns.

Cows are sacred to the world's one billion Hindus and Sanjay Mistry, spokesman for the Hindu Forum of Britain, which is backing Skanda Vale, said he hoped the High Court would hear the case by next week.

"Yes, he has tested positive for exposure to TB but there's no sign of him catching TB at the moment and he's in perfect health," Mistry told Reuters.

The Welsh regional government said Shambo may be slaughtered as early as July 10, but that could be delayed until a ruling is handed down, Mistry said.

Jane Davidson, minister for sustainability and rural development in Wales, said she recognised "the strength of feeling" in support of Shambo but that human and animal health took precedent.

"It is necessary to take measures to eliminate, as opposed to reduce or minimise, the risk of transmission of TB from this bullock," she said in a statement.

Since the tuberculosis test results in April, the sensitive nature of Shambo's plight has been evident, with Hindus across Britain and the world expressing concern.

A petition to save the Friesian bull had garnered 18,505 signatures by Tuesday.

The policy of Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is to slaughter any animal that tests positive for the disease, but it decided this particular case should be handled by the Welsh regional government.

If the court challenge fails, the temple has said it may hold a religious festival in front of Shambo's pen. To reach the bull, authorities would have to force their way past monks and nuns, which would be seen as an act of desecration.

"The person next to you is not any more important than you are and you are not any more important than Shambo is," Swami Suryananda said in an address at the temple this week.

"Everybody in the eye of God is equally as important. Only God has the right to give life, only God has the right to take life.

The Welsh regional government's decision on Monday to put down Shambo came as Guru Sri Subramanium, the founder and spiritual head of the Skanda Vale temple, died after six months in the Hindu community's hospice.



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