Anyone who followed the story of Shambo the bull will know how seriously many members of Britain’s Hindu community regard the killing of sacred temple cows. Well today a cow belonging to Watford’s Hare Krishna community was put down, this time apparently while devotees prayed.

Shortly after 9am this morning police and RSPCA officers served the Bhaktivedanta temple in Watford with a warrant and carried out an on-site slaughter of Gangotri, a 13-year-old Belgian Blue-Jersey cross.

For many the furore over Shambo’s slaughter was little more than making a mountain out of a molehill. A lot of people simply couldn’t understand why there was so much outrage from some of the Hindu community over the slaughter of a diseased bull.

But putting aside mainstream Hinduism’s theological arguments over the sanctity of all life and ahimsa, what made many members of the Hindu community really angry was the perception that the authorities had dealt with the matter in an insensitive and cack-handed way. (In Shambo’s case that meant police dragging peaceful monks and nuns away from their own temple as representatives of the Welsh Assembly battered down the door to Shambo’s shrine to cart him off to the abattoir.)

This time it seems the authorities have resorted to stealth tactics.

Gangotri, who was taken in by the temple after she was hit and paralysed by a car last year, was put down by the RSPCA because she had contracted some rather nasty bed sores and was in constant pain. To the RSPCA’s credit three separate vets all agreed that the animal was suffering and that Gangotri should be euthanised. The temple, meanwhile, says Gangotri has made significant improvements since they began looking after her.

But the stealthy way the lethal injection was carried out is sure to anger the wider Hindu Community. According to Gauri Das, one of the community leaders at the Bhaktivedanta temple, devotees had been given personal assurances yesterday from the RSPCA and police that, due to religious sensitivities, no immediate action over Gangotri would be taken. Instead within 24 hours police and vets had entered the farm while devotees prayed and carried out the slaughter. (The RSPCA, incidentally, refute the idea that they had given any assurances.)

We will have to wait to see whether the backlash over Gangotri is anything like as big as Shambo. My hunch is that, because the animal is dead and not awaiting a death sentence like Shambo was, the response will more muted.

But what will almost certainly happen is that those members of Britain’s Hindu community who already believe their specific religious beliefs are treated with contempt by the authorities will feel that once again their concerns were proved right. And that is surely something no one wants.

Original article available at http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2007/12/the-ghost-of-sh.html

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