Aug 19, 2003
Indian Cows are most threatened for its hide

AHIMSA AND SLAUGHTER FOR HAPPINESS !
CRUELTY IS BANNED, WHY NOT KILLINGS

New Delhi: Deriving happiness from ahimsa and slaughter is perhaps as old a practice as evolution of humankind itself. It continues despite the fact that the human civilisation considers it since at least 2500 years ago that we do not have any equitable or moral right to practice ahimsa and killings.
Nevertheless, we have also achieved a lot. Killing human beings is a crime in India, but killing prisoners in certain cases is allowable in the name of law. Even in the legally valid executions, we have abolished beheading and killing by methods other than hanging is prohibited on the ground of cruelty. One may go scot free even after killing a human being but in self-defence only. Hunting is banned. Wildlife is almost protected by law. Some of the aqua-lives are also protected. Killings of farmed animals and birds, and fishes are allowed. However, legally speaking, cruelty towards animals is prohibited and killings of farm animals have been legalised.
With the rise of Jainism, Buddhism and Vaishnavism in India, animal sacrifice has been greatly reduced. Hindus consider Cow a sacred animal, and do not kill it. They want to protect it by banning its slaughter in the Country, because killing of cows hurt their religious sentiments. Hurting religious sentiment is an offence under Indian Penal Code, and killing of cows sometimes creates great public nuisance. That is why, in many states in the country, slaughter of cow is already banned. But there is no central legislation to ban it.
It is in this backdrop, the issue of banning slaughter of cow has now become a new political issue. After the Congress Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh , Digvijay Singh expressed his view to ban slaughter of cow, the Centre has recently proposed to bring a legislation named “ The Prevention of Cruelty to Cows Bill, 2003.” It may not be out of place to mention here that the cruelty to all farm animals including cows is already offence in India. But by this new legislation the government means to ban slaughter of cow.
The proposed Bill says, “ Whoever kills or attempts to kill or abets the killing of cow (which includes male cattle) shall be guilty of an offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years but shall not be less than two years and with fine which may extend to 10,000 rupees on each cow.” This offence, according to the Bill, would be cognisable and non-bailable.
Nevertheless, many in the country are against any central legislation to ban slaughter of cows on various reasons. One of the reasons is that there is a huge domestic as well as foreign market of beef and leather goods.
According to the sources, India produces 15 lakh tonnes of beef and veal worth Rs 4,500 crore. The cows for this industry are purchased from all over India and from the persons belonging to all the religions including Hindus and Jains. Even many of the Vaishnavaites and believers in ahimsa sell their cattle when they find them less remunerative, and they ultimately find their places in abattoirs. Its also a fact that believers in ahimsa could be found in great numbers who use leather goods produced by such killings of animals. In this way, the business of killing of cows is thriving in India.
Killing of cows is prohibited is most of the states in our country for various reasons, and barring stray incidents, the beef eaters generally avoid to kill them in the vicinity of the cow worshipers. Now a days , most of the cow slaughter takes place in West Bengal and Kerala. Cows from Northern States of the Country are transported to Kolkata and from rest of the country to Kerala.
The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) says that our country produces 250 lakh pieces of cow hides, 220 lakh pieces of buffalo hides, 880 lakh pieces of goatskin and 330 lakh pieces of sheep skin. This is just an example of killings we are legally indulged in. The leather and leather goods export of our country during 2002-03 was worth $ 1814.18 million.
Why the cow is more favoured to be killed? The answer of this question is not difficult to find out. The Chairman of the CLE , Mr S S Kumar says that “average size of a cow hide piece is about 25 square feet which is much more than 3.5-4 square feet for gaot or sheep skin.” In this way cow hides are roughly 30 per cent of the domestic leather industry's primary raw material. The industry sources says that about fifty per cent of the cow hides originates from slaughter.
The President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation says, “The quality of the hides from Indian cows is recognised globally since out animals are small in size and the grains are finer and smoother, relative to the leather of Latin American or European origin.”
It is a well known fact that people consider the leather extracted from the killed animals superior to the leathers extracted from the dead animals. They say that the hide extracted from the dead animals contain some moisture an infections, which ruin its quality and reduces its price.
So all the killings are triggered by greed of money which the killers believe are good for them, and good for many people. There is no central law against such killings because the issue has always been controversial. Money and happiness are the two major causes behind animal killings and there is no place for ahimsa and the right to life for animals.
It would be better to change out habits of seeking happiness through killing other animals for a better civilisation. We should adopt the alternative ways of happiness that do not hurt anyone. We can exist without hurting or killing. The people should voluntarily stop such killing without waiting for a ban. If you hurt, you will be hurt; and if you kill , you will be killed. It's the fundamental law of nature. If one wants real happiness, why one should hurt and kill others even if it is legalised ? (EOM)