The death of a bull

Skanda Vale, U.K.

Hindu monks in Wales failed last week to prevent state authorities from killing their bull, which was suffering from tuberculosis. Health officials said Shambo posed a threat to humans and livestock at the Hindu monastery and had to be put down. More than 100 of the faithful formed a human shield around Shambo, praying and chanting until they were hauled away. The desperate effort to save Shambo drew national attention and sparked a debate about religious rights. Hindus revere cows and bulls, and considered the government action an assault on their religion. Nonsense, said Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society. “We do not live in a theocracy,” he said. “This religious belligerence must have cost the public purse many tens of thousands of pounds in legal action and already hard-stretched police time.” Shambo died by lethal injection.

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