Sacred bull Shambo killed by lethal injection
1 hour, 49 minutes ago
LONDON (AFP) - A sacred bull with bovine tuberculosis who sparked a row between a British Hindu temple and the Welsh government over whether he should live or die has finally been killed, officials said Friday.
Shambo, who lived at the Skanda Vale community in Llanpumsaint, west Wales, was put down with a lethal injection Thursday night, a Welsh Assembly spokesman said, following a stand-off between monks, supporters and police over access to the retreat.
Officers had to force protestors -- many of whom had come from abroad after hearing of the six-year-old Fresian's plight -- to back off from its enclosure to allow health officials to take it away.
Monks said their shrine had been desecrated as Shambo was taken away for killing Thursday evening.
Up to 100 Shambo supporters began chanting and praying early Thursday as they locked the gate and blocked the lane to the isolated community with a parked car.
When officials finally got through and the animal was taken away, many called out farewells or wept.
One of the monks, Brother Michael, said a charity in India had offered to take the bullock but the authorities refused.
"How is this acceptable? How can killing be acceptable?" he said Thursday. "Shambo represents the sanctity of life."
Officials say they may still have to take "further action" to prevent TB spreading in the retreat's herd -- raising the possibility that more cattle could be killed.
In a statement, the Welsh government, which is devolved from London, said that further tests had confirmed that TB was "in the herd."
"The Welsh Assembly Government is continuing to consider what other action is now necessary to protect human and animal health in relation to the test results from other animals in the herd," it said.
The row over Shambo's fate dates back to April, when health officials ordered that the animal be killed after testing positive for bovine TB, in line with government regulations.
But the monks and nuns at Skanda Vale said that killing Shambo would be against their religion and launched a court battle to try to save the bull.
Some 20,000 people signed an Internet petition opposing the killing but the Court of Appeal in London ruled Monday that it should go ahead.
The move was justified even though the Hindu community would consider the bull's slaughter to be a sacrilegious act and "a very grave and serious interference with their religious rights," judge Malcolm Pill said.
Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said the slaughter was based on a "subjective and unreliable" test which was sacrilegious and would involve a "grave desecration" of the temple.
"This decision now means that Hindus and other ethnic minorities who wish to observe their faith are second class citizens in the eyes of the law," he said.
He added that the group would now try to meet Environment Secretary Hilary Benn to secure reassurances about the status of other temple animals in Britain following the case.
Shambo became a star on the Internet thanks to a web camera -- nicknamed MooTube -- which allowed fans to track his activities.
Newspapers carried widespread coverage of the story Friday -- The Sun tabloid, the biggest-selling daily, headlined its story "Sham-bulls."
Friday, July 27, 2007
