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LONDON : The long-running battle between the Welsh government and a Hindu temple over a sick but sacred bull ended on Thursday, as health officials finally led the beast away to be slaughtered.
A stand-off earlier in the day between monks at the Skanda Vale retreat and police over the lack of a warrant for the bull's seizure was overcome as animal health officials and officers returned from court with the proper documentation and led six-year-old Shambo away.
Police were also forced to physically move protesters from Shambo's enclosure.
Monks at the temple said their shrine had been "desecrated" as Shambo was put on a trailer at the western Welsh site at about 7:30 pm (1830 GMT).
The bull's imminent slaughter ends an impasse that began in April when it was diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis and health officials ordered that it be killed, in line with government regulations.
Backed by farmers' unions, the Welsh Assembly Government, the devolved region's executive body, has insisted that it must be put down.
Hindus across Britain have declared, however, that Shambo's slaughter would be against their religion and some 20,000 people have signed an Internet petition opposing the decision, with the clash only having been resolved this week by a court ruling.
The Court of Appeal in London on Monday overturned a lower court ruling that went in favour of the Hindu monks and nuns, who opposed the Cardiff administration's policy.
The move was justified even though the Hindu community would consider the bull's slaughter to be a sacrilegious act and "a very grave and serious interference with their religious rights", judge Malcolm Pill added.
On July 16, the High Court in Cardiff ruled that the Welsh Assembly Government had so far failed to prove that slaughtering Shambo was the only way to check the spread of the disease.
The Hindu community and supporters began chanting and praying for Shambo on Thursday as they locked the gate and blocked the lane to their isolated community in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, with a parked car.
The monks and nuns of the Skanda Vale community - who maintain the sanctity of all life - had threatened to form a human chain to prevent the slaughter of the beast and padlocked the gates to the pen holding Shambo, who has become an Internet star thanks to a web camera that follows his movements.
One of the monks, Brother Michael, said a charity in India had offered to take the bullock but the authorities refused.
"How is this acceptable? How can killing be acceptable?" he said. "shambo represents the sanctity of life."
As at least four minibuses and two other vehicles containing police officers surveyed the massed ranks of protesters, there was criticism earlier from the National Secular Society which campaigns against religion in public life.
Its chief executive, Keith Porteous, said "religious dogma" was being put before community safety and health.
A Welsh Assembly Government spokeswoman appealed for co-operation from the members of the rural retreat, where the garlanded Shambo is kept in a special pen and surrounded by iconography and flowers.
"We are monitoring the situation at Skanda Vale very carefully this morning and are very concerned that the bullock may be getting distressed by the noise and activity around him," she said.
"Our concern has always been to minimise distress to the animal throughout this sensitive operation."
Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said the slaughter was based on a "subjective and unreliable" test which was sacrilegious and would involve a "grave desecration" of the temple.
"This decision now means that Hindus and other ethnic minorities who wish to observe their faith are second class citizens in the eyes of the law," he said. - AFP/de
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