Friday, July 27, 2007

Great separation of Church and State article, from the UK

http://www.skandavale.org/

This Hindu Temple site from the U.K. is aghast that the government "put down" their sacred cow that was also suffering from TB!

Here was the "webcam" to keep track of Sambo, the cow in question.

http://www.skandavale.org.uk/webcam.htm

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070726-1333-britain-sacredbull.html

That's the article about the cow.

Here's an excerpt, in case it gets archived...

Police seized a sacred bull from a Hindu monastery in Wales on Thursday, cutting locked gates and dragging away protesters before taking the animal for slaughter because he had tested positive for tuberculosis.
The plight of Shambo the bull attracted worldwide attention after the diagnosis this spring and prompted the Skanda Vale monastery to create an Internet petition campaign to try to save him. Hindus revere cattle and say killing the bull violates their religious rights.


“This is about the freedom of human beings to express their religious values,” said a monk, known as Brother Alex. “We can't be party to the destruction of life.”

The monastery suggested it could isolate Shambo to prevent the TB from spreading or send him to a willing charity in India, but authorities nixed those ideas.

Some people in Britain supported the seizure. Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society, claimed Shambo's supporters were “putting religious dogma before the welfare of the community.”

“This case represents another example of religious bodies trying to put themselves above the law,” he said.