Don't breed a cow - without protecting the bull calf

[Guest guest]

S S wrote:

 

> We have a six month old bull called Labanga, who is

> mild mannered, well behaving and docile. Since we have

> 9 cows we are looking to donate him to some one who

> will guarantee that he will not be slaughtered and

> will be taken care of. As we know the bull stands for

> Dharma and if we take care of a bull, we take care of

> Dharma. Please contact me, if you are interested.

> Sankar Sastri, Manager

> Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary Inc.

> 1515. Ridge Road

> Bangor. Pa 18013

> 610 599 8824

> e-mail: sankar1

 

Sankar Sastri Prabhu,

 

I don't know if you realize it -- but this is exactly the kind of thing

that absolutely makes my blood boil.

 

You have 9 cows and you want to get rid of your bull calf. You will

keep the milk-giving cows and get rid of the useless bull calf.

 

You state, "The bull stands for Dhama and if we take care of a bull, we

take care of Dharma." But you have made it totally clear that *you* do

not want to take care of the bull. *You* do not want to take care of

*Dharma.* So please do not pose the "Laxmi Cow Sanctuary" as a pious

cow protecting organization.

 

By what you have told us, we can see that "Laxmi Sanctuary" has at best

a half-hearted commitment to cow protection. You will protect the cows

who can provide Laxmi by giving milk. Then you will attempt to palm off

the bull calf -- who cannot provide Laxmi and is therefore a financial

burden-- onto someone else.

 

This kind of hypocrital attitude has caused rivers of blood to flow in

India. It is not needed here in the U.S. The too-common attitude in

India (although not among everyone, fortunately) is that "We will breed

the cow to get milk and we will protect her. If she has a bull calf,

then we can sell it." So who will buy that useless bull calf? A Muslim

-- that's who. And then what happens? That calf was of no use to the

Hindu -- so how will it be useful to the Muslim? As is well-known, the

Hindu's bull calf will be useful to the Muslim because the Muslim will

sell him to be slaughtered. The bull calf is useful to to the Muslim

because he can be sold for meat.

 

And then what happens? What happens is that when the Hindu finds out

that the Muslims have slaughtered the bull, they make a loud protest at

how sinful the Muslims are -- when it was the Hindus who set the whole

process in motion by creating a bull calf that they never had any

intention of using. And pretty soon there is fighting and bloodshed.

All because one group of people pretended it was superior to another

group of people by protecting cows -- when in reality, they only had a

half-hearted commitment to cow protection, and a full-hearted commitment

to finding fault with another religiuos group.

 

So, please do not pose Laxmi Sanctuary as a pious cow protection

organization, when you have only a half-hearted attempt at cow

protection.

 

Have you trained this little bull calf to work? Have you separated it

from the cows so it does not breed more un-wanted calves? Before that

cow was even bred, you should have considered, "We want to breed the cow

to get milk -- but we must be completely sure that we have a plan to

train and work a bull calf for the next 12 years before we do that.

Otherwise, if we do not have such a plan, he will probably end up being

sold to slaugther."

 

It would have helped you so very much if -- before you set out on the

creation of a Laxmi Sanctuary -- you had taken the time to read the

carefully prepared Minimum Cow Protection Standards created by ISKCON's

Ministry of Cow Protection and Agriculture.

 

Among other things the Cow Protection Standards very clearly state:

 

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

 

1) ANIMAL ACQUISITION

a) A cow should not be acquired or bred for furnishing milk without

well-defined plans to provide care and lifetime engagement for her

resulting offspring.

 

b) Cows should be acquired from the nearest ISKCON farm. [**As you are

not an ISKCON farm, this would not have applied to you.**]

 

2) SUFFICIENT LAND

Care includes having sufficient productive land to support the

offspring. This land should be held in a Cow/Land Trust and maintained

by self-reliant, low-impact methods.

 

3) ENGAGEMENT OF ALL STOCK

Lifetime engagement includes all male calves born be trained and worked

and female calves be trained to voice commands or halter broken. Female

cows are not required to be bred, especially if there are no plans to

train any resultant bull calves.

 

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

 

So it appears that either a cow was bred without making well-defined

plans to provide care and life-time engagement for her resulting

offspring, OR the bull calf was acquired from outside without making

well-defined plans for his care and life-time engagement.

 

Either of these constitutes and irresponsible act and is not the

practice of a serious cow protection organization.

 

So, it is very hard to understand how you thought you would set up a cow

protection organization, and at the same time maintain a policy of not

protecting bull calves. That is very, very hard to understand.

 

So, it may be that you will have good luck and you will find a devotee

near you who has the skills, the land, and the funds to take your bull

calf and engage him in Krsna's service for the next 12 years.

 

Or it may be that you will have bad luck, and you will not be able to

fulfill your responsibility to protect this calf who is depending on you

alone.

 

-- Hare Krsna dasi