SPCA and Hindus Butting Heads Over a Cow

Two organizations that revere the lives of animals are about to butt heads in the United Kingdom, as a Hindu temple files suit against the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) for killing the temple's sacred cow. The lawsuit claims that the RSPCA illegally entered the Bhaktivedanta Manor Hindu temple in Hertfordshire on December 13, 2007 and then killed the temple's 13-year-old, Belgian blue-jersey cow, Gangotri.

"There are theological and legal aspects to our decision to sue," Radha Mohandas a spokesman for the temple told The Guardian. "It is illegal to enter private religious property and the idea of killing a cow, especially a sacred one, is sinful in our religion."

According to the suit, Gangotri was incapable of moving due to a broken leg the cow had suffered a year prior, and was only able to lie on her side. Bed sores ensued from not being able to move under her own power, and the RSPCA euthanized the cow without permission of the temple. RSPCA represents deny the claims, and told The Guardian that staff on-site knew what was going on, and waited to kill the cow until prayer services had ended.

Bhaktivedanta Manor runs the Cow Protection Project, giving a home to old cows and bulls, giving them a place to die naturally and peacefully - putting the two groups square on in opposition to each other over the way the cow should die. Over 100 protestors marched on Parliament to protest the killing in February. Hindu groups all over the United Kingdom have angrily responded to the action of the RSPCA.

Hinduism is one of the world's largest religions, with approximately 920 million adherents, making it the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. Most practitioners live in India, but the loosely-affiliated philosophical system known as Hinduism has a large base of followers in the United Kingdom.

In the eyes of some radical animal advocacy groups like the Animal Liberation Front, killing an animal for any reason is wrong - and subject to extreme action, including arson, and have even included threats of murder aimed at research scientists. ALF considers itself an ally with the PETA movement - but PETA's more militant and radical wingman.

PETA and the American SPCA have a long-running battle. The American SPCA has openly condemned PETA for its shelter programs, which have been found to adopt-out less than half of those run by the SPCA organizations around the globe, and euthanizing the animals in cruel and unusual ways.