LONDON (RNS) A year-long dispute between the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and a Hindu temple has come to an end with the gift of a cow.
The dispute began more than a year ago when RSPCA vets put down a cow that officials determined was so ill it could no longer stand. The cow was one of a herd kept at Bhaktivedanta Manor, a Hindu temple in a village about 15 miles northwest of central London.
Hindus consider cows sacred animals, and the Hare Krishna monks who cared for the slaughtered cow were so incensed that they staged protests at the RSPCA headquarters and at the House of Commons in London.
But now the RSPCA has healed the breach by giving the temple a cow named Aditi, which means “the free one, boundless” and also “the mother.” Aditi is scheduled to give birth next month.
The RSPCA also apologized “unreservedly” for the hurt and offence it had caused, and emphasized that its aim of preventing cruelty to animals is an objective shared with Hindus, Sikhs and Jains.
