All animals get to die at some point. Wake up to reality and get over it.

Hippies are not above the law.

Really, they are not fools for trying to keep the cow alive.

Instead they are fools for not trying to prevent the bloody thing from catching TB in the first place...

If it really was that sacred, isnt there something they could have done?

but a guy in a funny outfit didn't come to kill me.

I've, been allowed, so far, to let nature decide when my time is up. Why can't we let the cow live?

It's not like it's going to enter the food chain - I'm pretty sure no one eats sacred cows when they do eventually die.

I do agree with Karim though, isn't there a vaccine for bovine TB yet?

Although it is rare, bovine TB can spread to humans, so (in the words of the tabloids) something must be done.

There are a number of vaccines under trial but AFAIK none are authorised for use. The human BCG innoculation *MIGHT* work in cattle, but I don't think much research has been done.

However, this is all besides the point, if the animal is symptomatic of TB it is far too late for a vaccine; antibiotics are the only possible solution short of slaughter.

Well done all of you looking after Shambo! Love the blog too!

Shambo looks fit and healthy - obviously well cared for by people who know what they are doing in terms of good husbandry and animal health and welfare. Shambo should not be culled and I hope the Welsh Assembly will see the wisdom of voting against him being slaughtered.

For the record, I have been in agriculture for nearly 6 decades and should be able to spot an animal with T.B. .

It seems that Shambo may not actually have bovine TB!

It appears he failed a skin test that highlights those animals that are suspected of carrying bovine TB and does not confirm that he actually has bovine TB. I wonder how many nasty diseases we're all carrying...

perhaps they should feed it loads of Vitamin D as they released study this week that concludes that it is very good to prevent (and cure ??) TB.

Greetings from Texas.

Off the Moo.

There must be a BBQ pit around somewhere.

The US, which loves to enforce all manner of vaccinations on children - even going so far as to remove all the fun of chicken pox parties with a chicken pox vaccine, as well as banning kids from schools and daycare facilities if they don't keep uptodate with their jabs - well they don't believe the BCG has any value whatsoever.

Remember this is the country that goes ape if a kid receives any form of punishment (apparently it's called redirection now), falls over, or if you tell a kid under the age of 36 that it failed an exam (deferred success).

In fact all they think it does is give some minor inoculation benefits at early age, but can then make the victim fail every TB test they take for the rest of their lives. This in turn means having chest x-rays if your job requires TB testing, just to stay employed.

It doesn't happen often - but if you do fail a test over here, the first thing a doctor will ask if you're British is were you given a BCG shot as a child. You will then be forced to pay for expensive x-rays and chest exams to prove you're not a public health hazard.

So putting the cow out of it's misery (or at least before its life becomes one), and reincarnating it as a pile of cremated ash seems the best option if you don't want the risk of the monks feeding and interacting with it becoming infected with TB - then passing that infection on to the general population.

There is medication for people that have TB, and it involves taking a regimen of pills for six months or so with no guarantee of success.

I think this is a publicity stunt for the next Malcolm Pryce "Loius Knight" book.

I can understand protecting an ovine ..... but a bovine .... nah

Loads of friendly farmers? Yeah right. Farmers are the first to demand that their neighbours' disease-ridden herds be culled. They only piss and whine about it when it's their own filthy beasts.

They're not hippies you idiot! They're Muslims. It's a religious community.

It's just another case of Mulsims thinking they can get around our laws because of their religion.

The point is they didn't look after their animal properly in the first place. They were probably too busy dressing it in pretty flowers or waving insence around to bother with our evil western notion of vetinary care.

So now the animal has TB and it needs to be put down. TB is conatagious and is a nasty disease.

If the bull is so sacred then why do they want to let it suffer a long and agonising death?

they are hindu not muslim totaly different religon :)

Strictly speaking they are Hare Krishnas but Hindu is close enough ;)