The slaughter of a Hindu temple cow will be mocked up outside the Houses of Parliament today as part of a protest against the RSPCA.
Hindu leaders and will mount a noisy demonstration over the RSPCA’s decision to put down a temple cow last year.
Ramesh Kallidai, head of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said one protester would be dressed up as a cow and receive a “mock injection” from protesters dressed as RSPCA officers.
The demonstration comes after Gangotri, a cow kept at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Hindu temple near Watford in Hertfordshire, was put down last year on welfare grounds. Hundreds of Hindu monks will gather in Parliament Square this afternoon and blow on conch shells to signal their distress at the decision to kill a cow they considered sacred.
The event coincides with the scattering of Gangotri’s ashes by Hindu priests in the River Ganges in Varanasi, India.
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Gauri Dasa, president of Bhaktivedanta Manor, said: “Our travel to India is our final act of respect to Gangotri. We are agonised by her killing and British Hindus also wish to voice their concern on the same day. Their protest in London is an expression of this desire.”
Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North who tabled an motion in parliament against the cows slaughter said: “The temple nursed Gangotri in a way no farmer could ever afford to do. The RSPCA seem to have missed the point that Gangotri was not being made to suffer.”
A spokesman for the RSPCA said they had made an inspection of the cow after receiving a complaint. Three independent vets said the cow should be “euthanased” immediately, the spokesman said adding that “the RSPCA will always seek to respect religious views, but the most important thing is to stop animals suffering.”
The killing of Gangotri comes amid claims by British Hindus of Government “indifference” towards them because they are a peaceful community.
Last year, Shambo, a temple bull at Skanda Vale temple in Carmarthenshire, West Wales, was put down in spite of protests after testing positive for bovine TB.