LONDON, ENGLAND, May 14, 2007: Farmers say they have sympathy for a “sacred” bullock facing slaughter, but still feel the animal must be put down. Monks at the Skanda Vale Temple in Carmarthenshire are campaigning to save Shambo, a six-year-old British Friesian which tested positive for TB. The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Cymru said exceptions could not be made. Meanwhile, Jay Lakhani, a prominent member of the Hindu community has warned that the wrangle was “making a mockery of Hinduism” and ignoring health issues (see HPI here).
Skanda Vale Temple, known as the Community of the Many Names of God, is a multi-denominational monastic centre at Llanpumsaint, which embraces all religious faiths and includes three Hindu shrines. A notice of the intended slaughter of Shambo has been issued, and the bullock is due to be killed by Monday, 21 May, according to Welsh Assembly Government rules. The Skanda Vale monks have said they will create a human chain around the bullock to prevent the slaughter. Shambo’s plight has also attracted parliamentary support – with one MP tabling a Commons motion asking for the UK Government to grant the bullock a reprieve – and has generated interest online. Following an online petition with more than 6,000 names, the monks are trying to set up a webcam – dubbed Moo Tube – so that supporters around the world can keep an eye on Shambo.
But despite the global attention created by the monks’ campaign, the final decision on Shambo’s fate rests with the assembly government. NFU Cymru president Dai Davies, who is a dairy farmer in nearby Whitland, said the case was “a difficult one”. “There is always sympathy to anyone who has livestock slaughtered,” he said. “But it is a crippling disease and the only strategy from the assembly government at the moment is the slaughter of infected cattle. “If you have an infected animal, it’s a reservoir of infection.”
An assembly government spokesman said: “Wales, in common with many other countries, implements a control policy, based on testing and the slaughter of animals believed to be infected, in order to protect both human and animal health. “We fully understand that this can be distressing for the owners, but these measures are in place to protect public health and animal health and prevent the further spread of the disease.” Last year, 5,220 cattle in Wales were culled because they failed the TB test.