What Is Cow Protection?
This article submitted to A
- Z Hinduism by Gurbaksh
Singh
Hearing the term "Cow Protection," people typically have
one of two
reactions. Some think protection is for endangered species, and since
there
are lots of cows, it's better to concentrate on whales. Others think
it may
be some pagan worship of animals - the "sacred cow" image.
THE ACTUAL PHILOSOPHICAL REASON FOR COW PROTECTION IS VERY SIMPLE:
First of all, all living entities should be protected from slaughter
and other
violence at the hands of humans. Not only cows, but animals have SOULS
the
same as we do. All are children of God, all are dear to Him.
With this view in mind, it can be seen that slaughter is a form of MURDER.
The cow, however, is our MOTHER. Vedic philosophy teaches there are
7
mothers:
1) the birth mother,
2) the nurse,
3) the wife of the father (if she is not the birth mother),
4) the wife of the king,
5) the wife of the spiritual master,
6) the earth, and
7) the cow.
You may wonder why the cow is considered one of the 7 mothers. Well,
it is because she gives her milk to nourish us. A ll mothers should
hold a position of respect, and since one does not kill and eat one's
mother, the cow should not be killed and eaten. Likewise, the bull is
our father because he can plow the earth to produce food grains. One
does not kill and eat one's father and mother - not even when they are
old and less economically useful.
In practice the first principle of cow protection, surprisingly, is
OX
EMPLOYMENT.
A mistake is made when only the cow is considered because typically
her main
usefulness is seen as milk production, and she won't give milk unless
she
first has a calf. Since half of all calves are bulls, the result will
be a
lot of excess bovine population. The expense of feeding them will be
a
deficit to the farmer. Unless employed as oxen, their only economic
usefulness will be in their slaughter to produce meat.
The modern system of agriculture sees no other economically viable means
of
management. And most people, accustomed to this viewpoint and seeing
no
alternative, will throw up their hands and agree, even if they'd prefer
a
less violent solution. But that is only because they don't have the
facts.
They don't know that the overall value of the ox is greater when he
is
utilized for work than when he's slaughtered for meat.
The present system (in America) is full of ironies and very wasteful.
Everyone laments the loss of the small family farm. But economic forces
today require quantity control - which is dependent on expensive tractors,
polluting fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, and heavy mortgages -
and the
small farmer is driven out of business.
Yet, beef production is subsidized with tax dollars. And in a world
with
increasing population and mass starvation, tons and tons of grains are
inefficiently fed to cattle for a smaller return in protein. Cattle
are
usually concentrated in feedlots where their manure becomes an environmental
hazard instead of the fine fertilizer it is meant to be. We are still
importing millions of barrels of oil to run our tractors. And the government
must from time to time give away surplus cheese to keep prices artificially
raised.
A BETTER SYSTEM would be rearranging the components. First, breed cows
not
to provide milk with calves as the by-product, but to provide a team
of oxen
for every family farm with milk as the by-product. There will be neither
excess milk nor excess calves. The oxen will be out in the pastures
eating
simply, and naturally fertilizing the soil, saving the farmer the cost
of
the tractor, fuel, and fertilizer. The oxen will be quite content to
use
their big muscles in such wholesome work, and the humans can become
healthy
vegetarians. As for the government, if it wants to subsidize something,
why
not the small family farm instead of the beef industry? The beef industry
may have a powerful lobby, but who wants all that heart disease, diabetes,
colon cancer, not to mention all that bad karma from killing innocent
animals!
Don't we all hanker for a simpler, cleaner, more wholesome, less violent
Earth?
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