Need for Cattle Protection in Modern India

(Featured image courtesy Kim Bartlett – Animal People, Inc.)

Modern day India empathizes with the utterly dismal and pathetic conditions of its cows, calves and bulls. The ancient Indian culture associated with Hinduism revered the cows that provided milk, the basis of agriculture and the foundation of a home.

Repeated attacks by foreign powers brought with them a multicultural environment and led to the decadence of cattle protection and its status in this country.

Every now and then we hear of relating cow protection to religion, but the truth remains that it is the culture of this land and root of this soil that grants protection to cows and prohibits their slaughter. Irrespective of one’s religion, it is the responsibility of all inhabitants of this land of India to protect and respect the cow and its progeny. Various instances are recorded in the past of Muslims taking care of blind cows in temple goshalas in Haryana, and Muslims stopping cow slaughter in Gujarat. Religion is just an excuse beef eaters and traders are using to promote cow slaughter.

No other nation has the sensitivity toward cows that the land of India possesses. However, dismal is the condition of the poor cows, whose ill fate it is that each time their protection is related to religious issues, without anyone coming forward to create a revolutionary landmark effort in cattle protection in this country.

In Delhi, we see cows and calves out on the streets, and while the owners take their milk regularly, the male calf is not fed mother’s milk even for a few days. Instead he is separated from the mother and left on the streets all alone, be it heavy rainfall, extreme heat, or harsh winter conditions, amidst the rush of traffic and trucks. Then these so called dairy owners wait for the calf to die and pick him up for hide, meat and skin. There is no check on what dairy owners do with the calves and the cow, and no restrictions and punishments applied to them.

The pregnant cows and newborns are also left to search for food in the filthiest of garbage bins in the harshest of weather conditions, and many eventually pick up infections and die horrific deaths (from eating plastic bags, for instance).

No-one is there to look after them, and no veterinary doctor is available and ready to come and treat the street cows and bulls without money. Oftentimes, even if someone is willing to pay money, the veterinarians still do not come at all.

The bulls in this city fare no better, and lie wounded and uncared for on the streets if some passing-by vehicle fractures their limbs.

In the Delhi Government’s effort to get the cows off the streets in 2005, so as to show their false pomp to foreign nationals before the Commonwealth, the local bulls were cruelly and pitifully dragged and put on trucks, breaking their horns. In various events when they refused to move on to the trucks, the heads of the bulls were torn off while trying to force them on to the lorries.

It is the duty and responsibility of the Government to provide shelter for the calves, cows and bulls of Delhi where these stray animals can stay and have their natural life in peace, and healthy surroundings without the fear of butchering, relentless cattle-owners or traffic.

However, presently in 2016 when a grievance was filed with the Delhi Government for the poor condition in Delhi Government goshalas – with no food or water, unsanitary conditions and no veterinary doctors available – the grievance was dismissed outright with no reply or reason whatsoever.

In response to a similar complaint as to the terrible condition of cows on the streets and goshalas and their treatment by local cattle owners, the Government of India replied that it is not their call but the state government’s.

Hence no one is ready to take up their responsibility for cattle, but all come in to involve minorities and religion in the name of promoting cow slaughter in this country.

The consequences of the treacherous and barbaric treatment meted to the cattle of this country are evident in the development of chaotic climatic changes, diseases caused by the use of pesticides in agricultural products instead of cow dung manure, and use of synthetic milk and products on a widespread scale. The majority of problems relating to lack of agricultural produce, milk scarcity, drought and climatic changes, diseases of the heart, strokes, and cancer shall be alleviated the moment the cattle of this country are treated with care and respect.

The restoration of glory to the cow and its progeny shall bring India back to the status that the country enjoyed once upon a time.

Images and press clippings exposing the plight of cows in India