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Andhra Pradesh: For the love of India's cows –

May 08, 2009, 12:42AM MT

By Sharon St. Joan

VSPCA rescue victory

VSPCA rescue victory

By Eileen Weintraub, Visakha SPCA global outreach

Visakha SPCA is celebrating an extraordinary rescue of over 50 young cattle who had been destined for a gruesome and illegal slaughter in India's underground meat market.

We used to rescue cows all the time; that's how we acquired the 650 plus in our care. The result is we are so overcrowded only an extreme emergency like this can compel us to rescue more.

The events: VSCPA President Pradeep Nath was tipped off about an illegal slaughterhouse in our vicinity. Because cow slaughter is illegal in this part of India, there are no "humane slaughter" regulations…so the animals are not treated well.

We alerted the police who helped us rescue the cows. The slaughterhouse owners were never found, but the managers were questioned and covered up for them. This is the same situation in many places, unfortunately, and therefore it's difficult to prosecute these crimes. It took us all night to very carefully tend to and load every cow that was fit enough to make it to our shelter. Sadly, of the 68 we rescued, ten died because of their poor condition. We have since adopted out 10. Of the 48 still here, 12 are suffering from foot and mouth disease, but they are recovering since we are very experienced with this disease. We are treating all these poor animals with very special care.

If you would like more details and photos, please ask us. Meanwhile, please help us give these wonderful cows a new lease on life with your generous contribution, however large or small. We would be so grateful, as would these happy cows from our shelter. With your help, all of the slaughterhouse survivors can be as healthy and content as these cows, who were rescued earlier, are.

What you can do

In this account, we have omitted some disturbing details--to read the full story and see all the photos, please go to
http://vspca.org/updates/2009-04-07/

Photos: Visakha SPCA / These are cows who were rescued earlier.

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