Holy Cow!

RSPCA vets trampled hoof and nail over the religious sensibilities of Hindu monks at Britain's largest Hindu temple on Thursday, as they gave a lethal injection to 13 year-old Gangotri, a Belgian blue cross cow who had been suffering great pain from sores and limb wastage.

Cows are of course sacred to Hindus, and the killing of one in a temple amounts to sacrilege of a terrible kind. It remains to be seen whether the leaders of the monastery will attempt to take legal action against the RSPCA but they have already accused the local police of being heavy-handed, alleging that officers used force to remove monks who were peacefully praying for the cow to get better.

Far be it for me to accuse the monks of willful animal cruelty; they had in fact been doing their very best to look after the cow, by praying every day and chanting. They also used more hands-on methods of veterinary science such as reiki and homeopathy, all to no effect (I find this very surprising, after all how could praying to a non-existent entity, manipulating the animal's energy fields and giving her magic water possibly fail to heal a terminally ill cow?)

Luckily for the poor cow, who presumably had no idea that she was in constant pain because she was sacred, the RSPCA and local constabulary had the balls to go in there and put the poor thing out its misery. This they did by lethal injection, which must have been some kind of sop to the poor sensitive monks as the usual method of destroying cattle humanely is to put a bolt or bullet through their brains.

A terrible offence of religious sensibilities, or a fresh breath of common sense and a point scored for the forces of anti- political correctness? No prizes for guessing my view on the subject!