Holy Cow!

Well, not exactly a holy cow, more like a holy bull. Shambo is a temple bull at Skanda Vale, in Wales, who tested positive for bovine TB. So, as part of the effort to control cattle consumption, Shambo has to go.

But the monks of Shambo's temple don't want him to be sacrificed on the altar of agribusinesses. They say that Shambo should be allowed to live.

I would tend to agree.

Now, first let me say, I'm not entirely sentimental about hamburger on the hoof. I've been to bull fights (and had a good time) and I do like steak (medium rare). But it does seem to me that he can be suitably quarantined from the rest of the cow population of Wales and saving Shambo could avoid a lot of unnecessary human suffering and much kerfuffle.

There have already been two appeals of the slaughter order. One to overturn the slaughter and one to overturn the overturn. So Shambo - according to a high court ruling today - is due to die.

The temple devotees are not going to give up on Shambo. I can't imagine that there's going to be a Waco type standoff, but they clearly mean business. On their website they promise:

We could no more allow the slaughter of Shambo than we could the killing of a human being. Ultimately we would be willing to defend his life with our own.

and they have exhorted others to come to their aid. I'm not really ready to form part of human chain around Shambo or even sign the online petition, but I'll happily direct interested readers saving Shambo online - in fact here's an image from his web cam (of course he has a web cam).



I can't recommend it as the most exciting online viewing. But it was kind of cool when he moved from the right side of his pen to more kind of the middle.




And that's no bull.