DOES A HALF HEARTED APOLOGY AND A REPLACEMENT COW HELPS RSPCA AVOID LEGAL ACTION ?

Sorry we killed your cow, RSPCA tells Hindus – have another one !

Archbishop of Canterbury helps to heal bitter rift after temple animal is put down
By Jerome TaylorSaturday, 13 December 2008

Gangotri the cow suffered paralysis after a vigorous mating session and was put down
When animal welfare officers walked into the grounds of Watford's Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple on13 December 2007 and put down one of its cows, the local Hindu community was outraged. Gangotri, a 13-year-old blue Jersey cross, was being nursed by temple officials after becoming paralysed during an overly vigorous mating session with Karma Deva, the resident bull. But the officials, from the RSPCA, believed Gangotri was "suffering unnecessarily" and killed her.

The decision caused a bitter rift to develop between Britain's Hindus, who regard cows as sacred, and the RSPCA. But a year on, the two groups have buried the hatchet thanks to a series of high-level talks and a little encouragement from the Archbishop of Canterbury, a patron of the society.
The Independent has learnt that a meeting between temple officials and the RSPCA's chief executive, Mark Watts, took place earlier this week. The society agreed to apologise for upsetting the Hindu community and offered to give a replacement cow to the temple as a goodwill gesture.
Officials from Lambeth Palace yesterday said they played no part in brokering that final meeting but one temple official admitted that progress in the talks only came about once Rowan Williams was contacted. "The Archbishop is a patron of the RSPCA and we wrote to him asking for his help," said Stuart "Shyamsundar" Coyle, the chief herdsman on the temple's farm, which claims to be Europe's largest cow sanctuary.
"The Church of England worked very hard in getting the RSPCA to talk to us about our concerns and we are extremely grateful for their help."
A spokesman from the RSPCA stressed yesterday that its vets had acted within the law when they put Gangotri down but admitted that they had upset the Hindu community in the way it was carried out. "We recognise we offended religious sensibilities," the spokesman said. "We know what happened caused a lot of offence to the Hindu community and we wanted to show that we want to work with Britain's Hindus in the future. The RSPCA has so much in common with Britain's Hindus when it comes to our attitude towards animal welfare."
Kapil Dudaki, who led the temple's "Gangotri Task Force" campaign group, said the donation of a new cow would help calm tensions between Hindus and the RSPCA.
"It is a wonderful gesture and we gladly accept it," he said. "It will very much help repair some of the damage done to our community in the past year. It was the way and the manner in which the RSPCA killed Gangotri which upset our community the most. To see a cow killed on the temple's grounds was utterly devastating."
In Hindu culture and scripture cows are considered sacrosanct. Bhaktivedanta Manor, a community of Hare Krishna devotees that was set up by the Beatles guitarist George Harrison, has a herd of 48 cows, most of which are milked or used to work the land.
Other temples have clashed with the RSPCA and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) over the care of sick animals. Under the Animal Welfare Act officials can kill an animal if they believe it is suffering unnecessarily. Defra has powers to destroy any animals that have contracted a contagious disease.
But most Hindus believe that killing a cow, even for merciful reasons, is sacrilegious because only God can decide when a sacred animal should die.
Yesterday Defra released a new set of guidelines on how to deal with sacred temple animals without offending the Hindu community. A spokesman from the Hindu Forum of Britain welcomed the new protocol.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sorry-we-killed-your-cow-rspca-tells-hindus-ndash-have-another-one-1064471.html?startindex=50

DOES A HALF HEARTED APOLOGY AND A REPLACEMENT COW HELPS RSPCA AVOID LEGAL ACTION ?

Sorry we killed your cow, RSPCA tells Hindus – have another one !

Archbishop of Canterbury helps to heal bitter rift after temple animal is put down
By Jerome TaylorSaturday, 13 December 2008

Gangotri the cow suffered paralysis after a vigorous mating session and was put down
When animal welfare officers walked into the grounds of Watford's Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple on13 December 2007 and put down one of its cows, the local Hindu community was outraged. Gangotri, a 13-year-old blue Jersey cross, was being nursed by temple officials after becoming paralysed during an overly vigorous mating session with Karma Deva, the resident bull. But the officials, from the RSPCA, believed Gangotri was "suffering unnecessarily" and killed her.

The decision caused a bitter rift to develop between Britain's Hindus, who regard cows as sacred, and the RSPCA. But a year on, the two groups have buried the hatchet thanks to a series of high-level talks and a little encouragement from the Archbishop of Canterbury, a patron of the society.
The Independent has learnt that a meeting between temple officials and the RSPCA's chief executive, Mark Watts, took place earlier this week. The society agreed to apologise for upsetting the Hindu community and offered to give a replacement cow to the temple as a goodwill gesture.
Officials from Lambeth Palace yesterday said they played no part in brokering that final meeting but one temple official admitted that progress in the talks only came about once Rowan Williams was contacted. "The Archbishop is a patron of the RSPCA and we wrote to him asking for his help," said Stuart "Shyamsundar" Coyle, the chief herdsman on the temple's farm, which claims to be Europe's largest cow sanctuary.
"The Church of England worked very hard in getting the RSPCA to talk to us about our concerns and we are extremely grateful for their help."
A spokesman from the RSPCA stressed yesterday that its vets had acted within the law when they put Gangotri down but admitted that they had upset the Hindu community in the way it was carried out. "We recognise we offended religious sensibilities," the spokesman said. "We know what happened caused a lot of offence to the Hindu community and we wanted to show that we want to work with Britain's Hindus in the future. The RSPCA has so much in common with Britain's Hindus when it comes to our attitude towards animal welfare."
Kapil Dudaki, who led the temple's "Gangotri Task Force" campaign group, said the donation of a new cow would help calm tensions between Hindus and the RSPCA.
"It is a wonderful gesture and we gladly accept it," he said. "It will very much help repair some of the damage done to our community in the past year. It was the way and the manner in which the RSPCA killed Gangotri which upset our community the most. To see a cow killed on the temple's grounds was utterly devastating."
In Hindu culture and scripture cows are considered sacrosanct. Bhaktivedanta Manor, a community of Hare Krishna devotees that was set up by the Beatles guitarist George Harrison, has a herd of 48 cows, most of which are milked or used to work the land.
Other temples have clashed with the RSPCA and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) over the care of sick animals. Under the Animal Welfare Act officials can kill an animal if they believe it is suffering unnecessarily. Defra has powers to destroy any animals that have contracted a contagious disease.
But most Hindus believe that killing a cow, even for merciful reasons, is sacrilegious because only God can decide when a sacred animal should die.
Yesterday Defra released a new set of guidelines on how to deal with sacred temple animals without offending the Hindu community. A spokesman from the Hindu Forum of Britain welcomed the new protocol.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sorry-we-killed-your-cow-rspca-tells-hindus-ndash-have-another-one-1064471.html?startindex=50

Victims of RSPCA bite back

Parliament Square saw a highly unusual demonstration Robed Hindu priests joined with farmers and animal lovers to protest at the killing by the RSPCA of a sacred cow, Gangotri, at a Hindu temple in Hertfordshire.

Two months before, the RSPCA had been invited to examine the cow, which had been injured by a bull and was being tended by vets. The RSPCA returned hours later, claiming to hold a court warrant, to give the cow a lethal injection. The Hindus were horrified. The following day the RSPCA applied for the warrant that it had claimed to have already.

As Gangotri's ashes were being scattered on the Ganges, the demonstration in London widened into a general protest against what many people, including specialist lawyers and vets, regard as the high-handed actions of RSPCA officials. As one of our biggest charities, with donations of more than £100 million a year, it relies on massive favourable media coverage, reinforced every time it brings criminal prosecutions against animal abusers. However, in a succession of recent cases, the courts have severely criticised the methods used by the RSPCA to mount such prosecutions, against people who were wholly innocent of the serious charges brought against them.

These cases and the publicity surrounding them have caused intense anguish to those wrongly accused. In two cases in Harwich and Portsmouth before Christmas, Nigel Weller, a Lewes solicitor, finally exposed how RSPCA witnesses had concerted their evidence in advance, using a proforma document to "coach" witnesses in what to say - about which magistrates and a judge expressed grave concerns. In each case the defendants, accused of depriving a dog and two cats of a balanced diet, were acquitted on all charges.
In the same month Maidstone Crown Court heard the appeal of Craig Sargent, a Kent farmer, who had been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs on five charges brought by the RSPCA including four of cruelty. After hearing his barrister, Jonathan Rich (briefed by Mr Weller), Judge Jeremy Carey agreed that the RSPCA had been unable to produce any evidence of cruelty.
In Norwich in January, Judge Philip Browning was critical of the RSPCA's conduct in seizing a much-loved pony, Florry, which had been with Martin and Gina Griffin's family for 20 years. The RSPCA held Florry in an animal sanctuary for over a year, claiming that she was "emaciated". The Griffins' vet, Charlotte Mayers, made it clear from the start that vets from her practice were treating the horse, which was laminitic and needed to be kept thin for that reason. Colin Vogel, the author of the RSPCA's own veterinaray manual on horse-care supported her views. At one point the RSPCA had wanted to put Florry down, but after 15 months she was finally re-united with her owners.

In February, after another five days in court, a cruelty case against Annette Nally, owner of Holly, a German shepherd, was called into question when it was found that RSPCA documents alleging her failure to treat the dog properly for ear and bowel conditions related to another dog. Holly died six months after the RSPCA had seized her (as Miss Nally only discovered five months later). In acquitting her on all charges, Judge David Chinnery praised her obvious care for her animals and her "impressive" evidence, and also that of her chief witness, Colin Vogel.
The Self-Help Group of farmers and others has existed for nearly two decades to put anyone experiencing difficulty with the RSPCA in touch with specialist welfare lawyers and vets. They have never been busier and cite scores of other instances in recent years. None is more shocking than that of PC Jonathan Bell, a Stoke-on-Trent policeman who in 2004 was called to a night-time disturbance where a cat had been squashed flat by a car. The RSPCA could not be contacted, so he put the cat out of its misery with a spade.

PC Bell was prosecuted for cruelty by the RSPCA and the case dragged on for two years, at a cost of £50,000. After his initial acquittal, the RSPCA appealed. Finally, in April 2006, the High Court threw out the case, prompting the Federation of Companion Animal Societies to comment that some of the RSPCA's prosecutions "seem to have a political agenda" rather than being concerned with "animal welfare". The growing number of people who fall foul of that agenda would heartily agree.

Article by Christopher Booker The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/02/do0202.xml

Victims of RSPCA bite back

Parliament Square saw a highly unusual demonstration Robed Hindu priests joined with farmers and animal lovers to protest at the killing by the RSPCA of a sacred cow, Gangotri, at a Hindu temple in Hertfordshire.

Two months before, the RSPCA had been invited to examine the cow, which had been injured by a bull and was being tended by vets. The RSPCA returned hours later, claiming to hold a court warrant, to give the cow a lethal injection. The Hindus were horrified. The following day the RSPCA applied for the warrant that it had claimed to have already.

As Gangotri's ashes were being scattered on the Ganges, the demonstration in London widened into a general protest against what many people, including specialist lawyers and vets, regard as the high-handed actions of RSPCA officials. As one of our biggest charities, with donations of more than £100 million a year, it relies on massive favourable media coverage, reinforced every time it brings criminal prosecutions against animal abusers. However, in a succession of recent cases, the courts have severely criticised the methods used by the RSPCA to mount such prosecutions, against people who were wholly innocent of the serious charges brought against them.

These cases and the publicity surrounding them have caused intense anguish to those wrongly accused. In two cases in Harwich and Portsmouth before Christmas, Nigel Weller, a Lewes solicitor, finally exposed how RSPCA witnesses had concerted their evidence in advance, using a proforma document to "coach" witnesses in what to say - about which magistrates and a judge expressed grave concerns. In each case the defendants, accused of depriving a dog and two cats of a balanced diet, were acquitted on all charges.
In the same month Maidstone Crown Court heard the appeal of Craig Sargent, a Kent farmer, who had been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs on five charges brought by the RSPCA including four of cruelty. After hearing his barrister, Jonathan Rich (briefed by Mr Weller), Judge Jeremy Carey agreed that the RSPCA had been unable to produce any evidence of cruelty.
In Norwich in January, Judge Philip Browning was critical of the RSPCA's conduct in seizing a much-loved pony, Florry, which had been with Martin and Gina Griffin's family for 20 years. The RSPCA held Florry in an animal sanctuary for over a year, claiming that she was "emaciated". The Griffins' vet, Charlotte Mayers, made it clear from the start that vets from her practice were treating the horse, which was laminitic and needed to be kept thin for that reason. Colin Vogel, the author of the RSPCA's own veterinaray manual on horse-care supported her views. At one point the RSPCA had wanted to put Florry down, but after 15 months she was finally re-united with her owners.

In February, after another five days in court, a cruelty case against Annette Nally, owner of Holly, a German shepherd, was called into question when it was found that RSPCA documents alleging her failure to treat the dog properly for ear and bowel conditions related to another dog. Holly died six months after the RSPCA had seized her (as Miss Nally only discovered five months later). In acquitting her on all charges, Judge David Chinnery praised her obvious care for her animals and her "impressive" evidence, and also that of her chief witness, Colin Vogel.
The Self-Help Group of farmers and others has existed for nearly two decades to put anyone experiencing difficulty with the RSPCA in touch with specialist welfare lawyers and vets. They have never been busier and cite scores of other instances in recent years. None is more shocking than that of PC Jonathan Bell, a Stoke-on-Trent policeman who in 2004 was called to a night-time disturbance where a cat had been squashed flat by a car. The RSPCA could not be contacted, so he put the cat out of its misery with a spade.

PC Bell was prosecuted for cruelty by the RSPCA and the case dragged on for two years, at a cost of £50,000. After his initial acquittal, the RSPCA appealed. Finally, in April 2006, the High Court threw out the case, prompting the Federation of Companion Animal Societies to comment that some of the RSPCA's prosecutions "seem to have a political agenda" rather than being concerned with "animal welfare". The growing number of people who fall foul of that agenda would heartily agree.

Article by Christopher Booker The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/02/do0202.xml

GANGOTRI RSPCA BETRAYAL

SUITED & BOOTED MURDERERS

ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PERSECUTION & CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

WHILE HINDUS PRAY; RSPCA SLAY !

GANGOTRI RSPCA BETRAYAL

SUITED & BOOTED MURDERERS

ROYAL SOCIETY FOR THE PERSECUTION & CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

WHILE HINDUS PRAY; RSPCA SLAY !

RSPCA KILL SACRED COW

MURDERERS ! OR PLAYING GOD ?

RIP GANGOTRI

RSPCA KILL SACRED COW

MURDERERS ! OR PLAYING GOD ?

RIP GANGOTRI