Sustainable Cow Protection

[Gauracandra]

I received this from another list I'm on. Here are my comments.

On the subject of devotee businesses, I think the time is about right for starting a "vegan" dairy, ie. milk products from protected cows. You'd have to charge relatively a lot for the milk products, because unlike commercial dairies that can sell the cow once she's done giving milk, the lifetime maintenance costs of a cow have to be earned from only so many years of milk production.

 

[Edited…]

 

A certain percentage of revenue must go to a trust fund for the cow's retirement. You could even have the retirement part be non-profit, where the cow is turned over with a

certain amount of money for its care.

Talk about “Great minds thinking alike” I was thinking exactly along these lines a few days back, and was trying to come up with a way of introducing an idea I had.

 

Here is the idea: Several weeks ago I went to my local Sri Vaisnava temple to watch the bathing abhishek of Balaji. It was very beautiful to behold. All these Indians brought in gallons and gallons of store bought milk, which was then placed in a tub and used to bathe the deity.

 

The whole abhishek was very attractive, fun, and inspiring. As a side note, one thing I found interesting was watching the milk ripple across the black frame of Balaji. As it passed various curves, and features, the milk brought out all the details in the deity. It was kind of surreal, as the features would not be there, appear, and then as the milk trickled away, disappear again. Anyways, back to the idea.

 

My idea would require having a farming community perhaps just outside the city (where there is plenty of land, at cheaper rates, for the cows to graze). Basically you would let people sponsor the abhishek. They could buy a tin gallon container for say $20. Then they would sponsor one gallon of Ahimsa milk for say $30. Once per week the deities would be bathed (say on Saturday) with this milk, and the off flow from the deities would be gathered again, in these tin gallon containers, for the sponsoring families. These tin gallons would be a one time purchase. You would need one for each gallon you planned on sponsoring.

 

We all know that $30 per gallon is a very high price relative to what it costs in stores. But this would be seen more as a direct donation to the cow. I’m not a cow expert, so I don’t know how many gallons a cow produces per day or per week. The money could be split up in some manner like $15 per gallon is used for daily maintenance of the cow. Then $10 per gallon is set aside in a trust fund for the cow (put in a moderate growth fund), and say $5 per gallon could be used for the financial support for the devotee(s) who take care of the cows.

 

The sponsors get to give a donation for the protection of these cows, they get to participate in the abhishek, and they get the prasadam afterwards. This was my idea to help encourage the development of a sustainable program for cow protection. We could also work in partnership with various temples in the area. Perhaps my local Sri Vaisnava temple would like to bathe Balaji in pure cows milk.

 

If anyone has knowledge of what it takes to maintain cows please fill in any details and give your insight.

 

Gauracandra