Do not make the Cow cry by giving away her Baby

[Guest guest]

Balabhadra and Chaya prabhus,

 

Your letter is a simple and eloquent explanation of why it is wrong to breed a

cow when there are no plans to take care of her baby. I hope that everyone

will

print it out and save it for future reference, for when they have to explain

the

situation to someone else.

 

Somehow it seems to be a very difficult point for devotees to understand:

Don't

breed a cow unless you are prepared to give life-time protection to the

resulting bull calf or heifer calf. But by making the analogy with the idea of

giving away the babies of a human mother because they are thought too expensive

to care for, you have made the reasoning extremely clear and easy to

understand. I hope that devotees will take this to heart.

 

Thank you so much!

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

***************************

 

"ISCOWP (Balabhadra Dasa & Chaya Dasi - USA)" wrote:

 

> Dear Devotee Farmers of Ershova,

>

> Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

>

> In our

> > village called Ershovo some devotees bought cows, but then they could not

> know

> > obout cow care standards. Now they cannot follow to many rules standards

> cow

> > protection. For example, one matadji sold a calf 2 week old to karmi. She

> say:

> > '' I cannot re strain breeding cow, I have not facilities to maintenance

> 2

> > cows". Some devotees have opinion, that if to buy a milk from karmi (it

> is

> > cost 0,1$ for 1 litre) it means to assist killing cows. Jhey say, that if

> not

> > breeding the cows the milk will be very little. What we can do? What is

> beter

> > for us?

>

> Let us say someone wants to have a lot of unrestricted sex life and

> therefore

> their wife keeps producing children, but they do not have enough money and

> room in their house for all the children she produces. Therefore

> they give away some of the children. This is not right, is it? They have

> had the sex life because they wanted to and therefore they should be

> responsible for the result of their sex life. The answer is simple, stop

> your unrestricted sex life if you can't take care of the children produced

> by it.

>

> When someone breeds a cow because they want milk and gives away the baby who

> is the result of breeding because they say they can not take care of the

> baby, it is irresponsible. Whoever breeds a cow is responsible for the life

> of the baby cow produced. Action and reaction. It is logical and simple. If

> the baby is sold to someone, espescially a non-devotee, the fate of that

> baby is not known and

> certainly it will not receive lifetime protection. Most likely the baby will

> eventually be slaughtered.

>

> In this case the arguement might be made that the breeding could not

> prevented. But this should have been known before purchasing the cow. One of

> the purposes of fencing is to prevent accidental breeding. Owning a cow is a

> responsibility just like having a child. If you are in a situation where you

> don't have much money and can not provide for the cow and its offspring, it

> would be better not to keep a cow and just buy your milk. In other words, if

> you can't provide properly for the cow and its offspring you are not in a

> position to have the cow. When you offer the bought milk the cow is receving

> benefit because the fruits of her labor are being offerred to Krsna.

> However, when you are in a position to properly take care of a cow, you

> should do so because purchasing milk is not ideal. It is more ideal to take

> care of the cows yourselves, but you must do that right or you become

> responsible and receive reaction for your irresponsibility in cow care.

>

> Bhakta Dereks letter to you on this conference provides some suggestions as

> to what to do to provide for the cow you have already. They are good

> suggestions and please see if you can institute any of them.

>

> Scripturally the cow is our mother. When you give away the baby of the cow

> you are selling our mother's children. Not to mention what the mother cow

> feels when her baby is being taken away by strangers.

>

> Srila Prabhupada Letter to: Kirtanananda :

> Mayapur

> 74-10-05

>

> When cows were purchased in the beginning I have seen them crying because

> the calf was taken for killing. They can understand. Not that they are

> animal and cannot understand.

>

> The greed for milk has influenced most of the mistakes made in ISKCON cow

> protection facilities. More and more people in the world are becoming vegan

> because of what happens to the cows to acquire milk. Personally, we are

> practically vegan and buy just a little cheese and butter. At this point we

> don't feel that we can be responsible for another cow that would be the

> result of breeding one of our cows. We have our own place and have 27 cows

> and oxen.

>

> It is very good to hear that you engage your oxen. There can be no cow

> protection without ox power. So this is very positive and a good example.

>

> Please keep in touch as to how your project progresses. If you have any more

> questions please feel free to inquire as you have done. If you like we can

> make you a member of the cow conference. There are over 80 devotees from

> international locations with interest and some with experience in cow

> protection.

>

> Your servants,

> Balabhadra das & Chayadevi

> ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture

>

> -

> "òÏÍÁÎ ìÉÐÉÎ" <radha (AT) esstel (DOT) ru>

> "Cow (Protection and related issues)" <Cow (AT) pamho (DOT) net>

> Thursday, April 05, 2001 3:11 PM

> from devotee - farmers of Ershovo, (South Kurjinovo Russia)

>

> > Dear Balabhadra prabhu, pleas accept our obeisances.

> > All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

> > We are received Your' response on Friday, November, 26, 1999.

> > But our letter was transleated with some mi stakes. For last months we

> have

> > some guestions.

> > We heve not public farm, but we have cowsin individual farming. It is

> very

> > difficult forus, because we have some problems with pasturing facilities,

> to

> > restrain breeding cows.

> > Can You give tous some advices, experience for individual farming?

> Becaus

> > in cow protection standards is informations only obout public fsrms. In

> our

> > village called Ershovo some devotees bought cows, but then they could not

> know

> > obout cow care standards. Now they cannot follow to many rules standards

> cow

> > protection. For example, one matadji sold a calf 2 week old to karmi. She

> say:

> > '' I cannot re strain breeding cow, I have not facilities to maintenance

> 2

> > cows". Some devotees have opinion, that if to buy a milk from karmi (it

> is

> > cost 0,1$ for 1 litre) it means to assist killing cows. Jhey say, that if

> not

> > breeding the cows the milk will be very little. What we can do? What is

> beter

> > for us? In our village is two families - Prema Kalpataru das and Kasturika

> > d.d., Acyutananda das and Srimati Sundari d.d.(authons of this letter). We

> are

> > trying to train are oxes. We engaged ox power in supply a water, fire

> wood,

> > hay, dung.

> > Your servants

> > Acyutananda das and Srimati Sundari d.d.

> >

 

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