What will be the future of cow shelters in computer-age India?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:

 

 

What will be the future of cow shelters in computer-age India?

 

What is to become of Indian cow shelters?

Enduring frequent spasms of reform and reinvention ever since

automobiles began to replace ox carts, cow shelters are among the

most distinctive Indian traditions, and are the oldest form of

organized humane work.

Perhaps more ubiquitous in India than either schools or

firehouses, often endowed with substantial inherited assets, cow

shelters appear certain to survive in some form, but their future

role and relevance is a matter of intensifying debate.

Among the issues are whether cow shelters should be religious

or secular institutions, whether they should be supported by

taxation or strictly by charity and the sale of milk and byproducts,

and whether they should lead cultural reform, becoming actively

involved in politics, as many do, or merely endure as quaint

cultural symbols.

Few objections are raised when cow shelters promote

traditional Indian values, but controversy explodes whenever the

directors point out that their work alone is not enough to prevent

cattle from being sold to slaughter, and that prominent politicians

and their families are involved in the illegal slaughter traffic.

The terms " gaushala, " " gosadan, " and " pinjarapole " are

often applied interchangeably to cow shelters, and often refer to

the same facility, but under national regulations published in 1947

and 1954, they have somewhat different legal definitions.

" Gaushalas " have an awkward dual mandate, being officially

considered agricultural institutions, as well as having an animal

welfare role. Gaushalas often breed cattle, ostensibly to conserve

native genetic traits. Many have become commercial dairies.

" Gosadans " are hospices for dying cattle. " Pinjarapole "

seems to be the most inclusive term for cow shelters of any type.

All, in concept, are places where cattle found wandering at

large are confined. All honor the mythic role of the cow as " Mother

of India. " Historically, most were projects of specific Hindu,

Jain, or Buddhist temples and religious charities, but many today

are non-sectarian.

Vedic references are said to mention cow shelters existing as

long as 5,000 years ago. By 2,500 years ago they already operated

in most major cities.

Moguls, when India was under Muslim rule, often bought

public favor by helping to support cow shelters, even though the

moguls ate beef. The British governors who succeeded the moguls

found cow sheltering somewhat incomprehensible, but did not

interfere. Some British officers who studied the concept eventually

adapted it into modern dog-and-cat sheltering.

Mohandas Gandhi and followers promoted cow shelters as symbols of

nationalism during the struggle for Indian independence. Post-1947,

the newly enfranchised Gandhians tried to reinvent cow shelters as

vehicles for rural education and economic growth. Secularizing cow

shelters, however, may have encouraged the tendency of many to

operate for profit, while the abandoned cattle they exist to rescue

starve in the streets.

Cow shelters not actively engaged in dairying often exist

today as adjuncts to municipal efforts to clear the roads of animals

whose meanderings cause accidents and impede traffic. A stereotype

has developed of city-run cow shelters as places where cattle are

deliberately starved to death so that dishonest staff can sell their

hides. This has happened, but in fairness, the cattle who starve

in shelters usually come already severely debilitated from having

ingested plastic bags that block their intestines. Emergency surgery

saves some, but many are beyond help.

Cow shelters operated by animal advocates typically take on

more ambitious roles, for instance trying to rescue cattle from the

illegal slaughter traffic, rescuing surplus bull calves who are

abandoned at temples, and attempting to defend and promote the

traditional Brahmin lacto-vegetarian diet.

Much of this activity appears to be swimming against the

mainstream. India and the U.S. produce almost the same volume of

milk per year, but three times as many Indian cattle are bred to

obtain it, resulting in three times as many surplus calves and

" spent " cows for farmers to dispose of.

Export to slaughter is the only profitable method, though it

can only be done by trucking cattle huge distances over back roads

into the two states that have legal cattle slaughterhouses, or by

smuggling live cattle out of India.

Abandoning surplus calves and cattle is less risky, and cuts

farmer's losses.

Indian milk consumption is rising, along with meat

consumption, but the rise in milk use is increasing the volume of

surplus cattle, and the stress on cow shelters.

Current Indian national cow shelter policy still centers on

the Gandhian notion that the shelters should become economically

self-sufficient, a contradiction in terms if they are expected to

absorb the surplus animals from the ever-expanding milk industry.

An alternative approach would tax the dairy industry to

support cow shelters. This would encourage increasing milk output

per cow, but would contravene the goal of promoting use of native

Indian breeds.

Sperm-sorting to prevent bull calf births could help to

reduce the cattle surplus, but is prohibited because the technology

has been misused to prevent conception of human females. The present

Indian birth rate of only 93 girls per 100 boys is considered a

looming major threat to social stability.

ANIMAL PEOPLE recently visited two cow shelters that are

often mentioned as models--one of them among the oldest and largest,

the other relatively new and small.

 

 

" Small is beautiful " in Visakhapatnam

 

VISAKHAPATNAM--The Visakha SPCA testifies by example that the

approach to revitalizing India articulated by E.F. Schumacher in his

influential Gandhian treatise Small Is Beautiful (1960) can be

updated and made to work, with sufficient inspiration and investment

capital from donors.

When ANIMAL PEOPLE first visited the present Visakha SPCA

site in 2000, it was a gravel-strewn dry flood plain--which has

since flooded twice, necessitating redesign and reconstruction.

The facilities consisted of one makeshift cattle shed.

Today, more than 600 animals including several hundred

cattle occupy space that could then barely hold a few dozen. Almost

every square inch appears to be in well-planned multiple use.

Between buildings and access paths, fast-growing native trees,

bushes, and grass provide shade, a congenial atmosphere, and a

surprising volume of home-grown food treats for the resident animals:

not only dogs, cats, and cattle, but also monkeys, birds of

multiple species, and star tortoises, rare in the wild due to

poaching, who have found the Visakha SPCA a safe place to breed.

Central to the Visakha SPCA is a biogas reactor that converts

the animal waste into fertilizer and fuel to generate electricity.

The Visakha SPCA is a model of the cow shelter modus operandi

that the Gandhians espoused as their ideal; but it is also a hybrid

with newer concepts of the role of animal welfare institutions.

The original Visakha SPCA project was protecting sea turtle

nests, a relatively rare instance of a humane society managing a

species conservation program. The project that most built the

organization was persuading the city of Visakhapatnam to stop

electrocuting street dogs, accomplished in November 1998, followed

by building one of the leading Animal Birth Control programs in

India, to reduce the dog population without killing.

Growing with Visakhapatnam, which is among the

fastest-expanding cities in India, the Visakha SPCA now provides ABC

not only to the central city but also to a constellation of suburbs.

The pinjarapole helps the Visakha SPCA image, founder

Pradeep Kumar Nath believes. High-profile rescues of cattle from

illegal butchers, and of calves from temple abandonment, help to

deflect criticism of the emphasis on dog rescue. Some cow protection

donors are so offended by the presence of dogs on the premises, Nath

says, that he welcomes their visits at a second entrance that

bypasses the kennel area, beside the main gate.

Meanwhile, the Visakha SPCA pinjarapole facilities are full,

and cattle and calves continue to be born and dumped.

 

 

5,300 animals in Ahmedabad cow shelter

 

AHMEDABAD-- From the road, an American visitor might easily

mistake the present location of the 400-year-old Ahmeda-bad Dabla

Pinjarapole for a massive feedlot. It is the economic engine for the

surrounding countryside, employing more than 80 people, and

supporting countless small farms by purchasing fodder.

The facilities housed about 5,300 animals when ANIMAL PEOPLE

visited, including 2,500 adult cattle, 2,000 calves, 200 buffalo,

and other species including donkeys, horses, a camel, a nilgai

antelope, and a small troupe of languors.

Most of the cattle were male, abandoned on the streets of

Ahmedabad because cattle cannot legally be sold for slaughter. Many

were once working bullocks, but suffered injuries or illnesses that

rendered them unfit. Others arrived as starving calves.

Buffalo may be sold to slaughter, but are sometimes

surrendered to the pinjarapole by people who choose not to sell

retired work animals, yet cannot afford to keep them.

About 1,000 animals per month arrive, on average. About 750

die, explained Mr. Bhyasam, the retired Indian revenue service

officer who took over the pinjarapole management as part of a reform

movement more than a decade ago. He won release of the funds to

build the present facilities in 1996.

Land rents and inheritances have made the Ahmedabad Dabla

Pinjarapole wealthier than the Animal Welfare Board of India itself,

Mr. Bhyasam asserted. Money for good management is not a problem,

Mr. Bhyasam emphasized. What the pinjarapole lacks, he said, is

knowledge about how to do a better job--and, perhaps, an

understanding of how to make the time-honored work of the pinjarapole

relevant to modern India.

Like many Indians of his place and time, Mr. Bhyasam has

only one name. He dresses traditionally. But instead of resisting

change, Mr. Bhyasam proclaimed, he welcomes the contributions of a

younger and better educated generation, and looks forward to

learning from youth.

Mr. Bhyasam brought out meticulously kept books detailing the

causes of animal deaths. Most of the dead, he said, arrive in such

poor condition that they cannot be saved. Sprawling as widely as

Houston, with about the same human population as New York,

Ahmedabad is a harsh environment for working animals. Those who

remain ambulatory when they reach the pinjarapole often become

longterm residents, but those who drop have low odds of recovery.

At the pinjarapole the animals receive good food and clean

water. Other care has been rudimentary, but Mr. Bhyasam recently

hired a new veterinary concessionaire, Animal Help Ahmedabad,

founded by Rahul Sehgal, 32, whose main project has been running

the city Animal Birth Control program.

Within days the Animal Help vets began updating and amending

much of the animal care regimen. The first change was that the

resident bullocks are no longer drafted each morning to help haul

away dead animals--a chore that apparently no one considered before

in terms of the possible psychological effect on the working animals.

There are other problems yet to deal with. Monsoon flooding

is an annual menace. Mired cattle die of exhaustion. Parasites

breed in the standing water.

The few cows among the cattle and buffalo are housed with the

males, at risk of impregnation by the occasional intact bull.

Traditionally, if calves are born at a cow shelter, their mothers'

milk is believed to convey special blessings to those who buy and

drink it, at premium prices.

Sehgal is optimistic that the necessary changes and

improvements can be made. Mr. Bhyasam has pledged to cooperate.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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