(IN): After Shambo, it’s Gangotri

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071220/jsp/frontpage/story_8689878.jsp

 

*After Shambo, it's Gangotri

 

*

 

AMIT ROY

 

*London, Dec. 19:* Is it better to put down a cow that is in less than

perfect health or prolong its life by lavishing tender care and love on the

animal?

 

Traditional Hindu philosophy inclines towards the second view while the

western approach, represented by the Royal Society for the Prevention of

Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), espouses the first.

 

When the two collide, as has just happened with the putting down of a

13-year-old Blue Jersey cross called Gangotri at a Hindu temple in

Hertfordshire, there is an almighty row caused by a huge cultural

misunderstanding.

 

Gangotri could not stand but it was being looked after by devotees at the

Bhaktivedanta Manor, the mansion donated to the Hindus by the late George

Harrison of The Beatles.

 

Escorted by police, RSPCA vets came into the Hare Krishna temple grounds and

put down Gangotri, much to the fury of the priests who have accused

Britain's premier animal welfare organisation of underhand tactics and going

back on an earlier undertaking that the cow would not be killed without

proper authorisation from her owners.

 

The row recalls another spat in July, caused when Shambo, a bull looked

after by Hindu monks in Wales, was put down by the Welsh authorities after

the animal had tested positive for TB.

 

The Hindu priests at Bhaktivedanta Manor have now launched a campaign

against the RSPCA which shows no signs of offering an apology.

 

" We did what was best for the animal, " an RSPCA spokesperson said.

 

The organisation, which is funded by public donations, is highly regarded by

the British who frequently leave generous sums to the RSPCA in their wills.

Last year, the RSPCA earned a staggering £110 million, an indication of the

esteem it enjoys among the British.

 

However, its understanding of the Hindu approach to life probably leaves

something to be desired. While the cow was an animal which needed to be put

down " for its own good " , to the worshippers, Gangotri was a living being,

that merited all the love and attention, hand feeding and daily rub-down

that has been lavished on her for months.

 

A local Labour MP, Barry Gardiner, who represents Brent North, said

immediately after Gangotri was given a lethal injection: " At 9am this

morning, an outrage was perpetrated against the Hindu community in this

country. An RSPCA vet accompanied by three police officers went unannounced

to Bhaktivedanta Manor and put down a cow, a sacred cow, which had been

nursed by the herdsman at the manor for 14 months. "

 

Gauri Das, the temple president, promised: " You can expect protests and

lobbying, we will do whatever it takes to be heard. We are all in shock at

the moment, we are all too shocked to even be angry. "

 

He also alleged: " A charity organisation with no powers came uniformed into

our temple and enforced the killing of Gangotri, a loved and cared-for cow

with no disease. Her only crime was that she couldn't walk. "

 

It is fair to say that since 9/11 and especially the subsequent terrorist

attacks on London's transport system, the British people as a whole have

become much more sensitive to Muslim thinking. Some Hindu groups are now

trying to use the killing of Gangotri to promote their own agenda — and the

RSPCA, by failing to explain what it was doing, has handed them valuable

ammunition.

 

 

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