Holly cow is no laughing matter in India. millions actually worship cows and many do use cow pee as holly water. (it was all in the national geographic channel the other day)
Here's how American hindus safe cows from your kitchen table
Cows, considered holy by Hindus, safe in U.S. sanctuaries
Author: Jason Straziuso
Associated Press
Down an unmarked dirt road in a hilly corner of eastern Pennsylvania, Sankar Sastri calls out to his nine cows who, after a moment, charge around an old stone fence and romp around Sastri like children at play.
"They're all happy today," the former engineering technology professor says.
They have good reason to be. The cows live on Sastri's Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary, one of a scattered web of safe havens across the country protecting the animals from slaughter. Cows are considered holy by Hindus and adored by some animal lovers.
On a recent soggy afternoon, standing beside his century-old barn while wearing a mud-caked New York Yankees cap, Sastri moved among the cows, calling them by name.
"This is Sita. She's very loving. Look at the beautiful blue eyes," said Sastri, who moved to New York from India in 1964. "We say the cow is like a second mother to us. You wouldn't send your mother to slaughter, would you?"
In India, cows are a religious and practical cornerstone of life. Milk is used for nourishment, dung for fuel and cow urine for medicinal purposes. And to Hindus, cows are to be protected not eaten.
Sastri's quiet, 42-acre sanctuary, also home to a tailless cat and a blind and deaf dog, became a solution to a legal battle in Angelica, N.Y., 250 miles northwest of Bangor.
Stephen Voith, his wife, Linda, and the family's two children are followers of a form of Krishna Consciousness, whose followers protect cows.
A court this week told the family it cannot keep cows on its village property because of zoning rules. The Voiths, their four cows included, are soon moving to Sastri's sanctuary.
Voith believes the court decision amounts to religious persecution. He said the family was not popular in the small farming community. In his front yard was a sign that read "Krishna Bhaktivedanta Sustain-a-bull and Wholly Cow Protection Society."
For Indians and followers of Hinduism, cows have a historical and cultural sanctity not easily understood in the West, said George Weckman, a professor who teaches a course in Hinduism at Ohio University.
Cows are holy in ancient religious texts and stories. Above that, Weckman said, they have become ingrained in the thoughts of Hindus.
Cow sanctuaries dot the country. An Adopt-A-Cow farm in Port Royal, Pa., one sustained by donations of animal lovers and Hindus, houses 38 cows. A sanctuary in Carriere, Miss., houses 132, according to its Web site.
In Moundsville, W.Va., 24 cows are protected on a 160-acre farm run by William Dove, also known as Balabhadra das. He incorporated the farm as the International Society for Cow Protection.
"Many of my neighbors are cattle ranchers, but we're all friends," Dove said. "They have their lifestyle and we have our lifestyle."
Dove bought his farm from the New Vrindaban Community, a nearby religious center with more than 100 cows.
Cows have won the hearts of non-Hindus as well.
Helga Tacreiter, who grew up loving dogs, runs a 13-cow sanctuary in Shiloh, N.J., a project she started after working on a dairy farm.
"I met the cows and I was just wowed by them," said Tacreiter, 50.
Tacreiter said she thinks of cows as people in the sense that dogs are sometimes considered family members. To support herself and the farm, she makes and sells "cowches," life-sized, cow-like floor pillows.
If Tacreiter hears that someone thinks she's going to extremes for the cows, she invites that person to her farm. "As soon as they meet the cows, they get it," she said.
Back at the Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary, Sastri's eyes dance as he watches the cows wander away. He wished more people knew them as well as he does.
"They only see them as meat," he said. "Animals have a soul, personality, they interact. Unfortunately people don't see that."
