Shambo the holy bull seized for slaughter
Last Updated: Thursday, July 26, 2007 | 3:38 PM ET
CBC News
After months of legal wrangling and standoffs with Hindu monks, police and a government veterinarian finally seized Shambo the sacred bull on Thursday with plans to kill the TB-infected animal.
A spokesman for Britain's Hindu Council confirmed that the six-year-old black Friesian bull was removed from his hay-filled shrine Thursday evening.
Shambo, a bull sacred to Hindus but condemned by health authorities after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis, was taken away Thursday evening. The monks who tended to the sick bull mounted a vigorous internet campaign to save its life, arguing the killing Shambo was an affront to their religious rights.
(Barry Batchelor/AP)
"They have broken into the temple and they're taking him away for slaughter," Hindu Council spokesman Sanjay Mistry told the Associated Press.
The Hindus running the Skanda Vale temple in southwest Wales revere cattle and have argued that killing Shambo would be a violation of their religious rights. The monks had wanted to keep the animal in a separate, hay-filled shrine.
The monastery launched an internet campaign, getting 17,000 people from around the world to sign an online petition to spare the animal's life. People were also invited to log on to watch the bull's daily activities in quarantine on a webcam dubbed "Moo Tube."
During the afternoon Thursday, Moo Tube was broadcasting images of Shambo being tended to by monks in his shrine. By Thursday evening, live images only showed images of the empty hay-lined pen.
Earlier in the day, Hindu monks and protesters successfully blocked Welsh government officials from taking Shambo away, demanding they only enter the premises upon presenting a court warrant. The officials returned hours later with the proper documents, giving worshippers a few more hours to pray with the beatific bovine.
Shambo tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in May. Under U.K. law, cattle that have contracted bovine tuberculosis must be killed to prevent the spread of the disease to other livestock.
On Monday, the Court of Appeal in London overturned a decision from a lower court that would have spared Shambo's life.
The monks warned Thursday that the officials would have a hard time getting access to Shambo and would only be able to do so by interrupting dozens of worshippers observing a religious rite in front of Shambo's pen.
"They will have to physically desecrate a temple to get him," Brother Michael, one of the monks at Skanda Vale, told the Associated Press. "He's locked here and we will be having an act of worship in front of where he is."
Police moved in anyway, dragging away some of the chanting worshippers who refused to leave. No one was hurt, Mistry said.
"It's bad, but I don't blame the police because they were friendly and they did their duty," said one of the worshippers, Verena Blum.
