Cow protection

Cow protection taken literally means to protect cows throughout their lives until a
natural death. Cows can be grouped with all other farm animals as part of a farming
system with lifetime-protected farm animals. This farming system could be called a
Vegetarian Farming System, or, in line with a contemporary movement, Protection
Farms. What relevance the lifetime protection of cows, or other farm animals, has to a
modern, industrialised world is scantly appreciated by most people, yet to have a
fuller understanding of this theme it may be best to place it into its historical and
geographical perspectives.
In the Vedas, Cow protection is seen as a major part of a God-centred society. Indian
Cow protection is known throughout the world for its ‘sacred cows’, but beyond
present conceptions and misconceptions of what this means, the Vedic literature spells
out the ideal very clearly. India is the home of the Vedic literature, which is vast and
deep. Written by sages over the millennia to explain the material and spiritual worlds
and what a soul must do to attain enlightenment and pure love of God. In the original
Vedic system, life is to be lived simply to allow people to have time to think, for
contemplation and meditation, so that they may come to understand the nature of life
and live according to the soul’s findings. A simple agrarian life, with the needs of life
being shelter, sustenance, family relationships and the need for society to be
protected, is seen as the ideal. In the Vedic paradigm, the goal of life is love and
purity in alignment with God’s Will, therefore there can be no such thing as
slaughterhouses and the eating of meat, which is in fact the putrefying cadaver of an
animal mercilessly killed to satisfy the tongue’s cravings.
Whilst the Vedic literature, in tune with other religious writings, does not accept the
theory of evolution, it does mirror many historical trends. With the increase in human
population it became necessary to expand the available food resources; forests were
cleared and crop land brought forth with the use of animal power in the form of bulls
and oxen. Unlike the modern perspective, though, the Vedas speak of how these
animals were treated like pets and never slaughtered for meat. If meat were to be
eaten, it would either have been in the form of domesticated pigs, goats or chickens,
or would have been hunted from the wild forests. As the ox provided the energy for
the clearance of forests and the cultivation of the fields, and as the cow gave a by-
product of milk, which could be taken without harming the cows progeny, the cow as
a species came to be revered to such an extent that it became sacred. Thus, this Vedic
civilization had created a biological symbiosis wherein both human and bovine
species mutually profited. According to the Vedas, and also mirrored in the Bible, it
was only five thousand years ago when civilized societies started to slaughter its farm
animals for human consumption.
The above information is not the exclusive domain of India and the East, though. In
the West, the Greek philosopher Plato mirrored much of the above in his literary
works. In ‘The Republic’, Plato spells out how life would be if people just lived of the
land, satisfying their needs with simple dwellings and food. He then showed what
would be the case if they were not content with basic needs and wanted more in life,
whereby a stratified society would develop with the need to specialise the means of
production and due laws in place to ensure social stability. Plato was a vegetarian, but
in his writings little emphasis was placed on how this would be practiced if farm
animals were protected. He did, however, highlight the negative effects of a meat-
based diet concentrating on ethics, health and the ever-present need to expand one’s
land for animal production, which would inevitably lead to war.
With cow protection now somewhat placed into its historical and geographical
perspective, the question may still arise as to what relevance it has to the modern
world. In the most economically developed countries (MEDCs) an ethical and dietary
revolution has been taking place this last half century. In the UK, for example, almost
15% of the population either claim to be vegetarian (6-7%) or to have dropped red
meat from their diet and to be mostly vegetarian except for the occasional
consumption of white meats (8-9%). It can be safe to predict that by 2010 there will
be a 10% wholly vegetarian population in theU.K., equivalent to six million people.
Whilst the UK is the leading light in the vegetarian movement, it does not stand alone
though, as throughout all MEDC countries a similar, if lesser, phenomenon has been
taking place. Many reasons for adopting a vegetarian diet exist, but, again, in the UK
the main reason is for animal welfare, which is even a big issue for many meat eaters.
It could well be that a form of reverse colonisation has taken place in the UK, with
Hindu beliefs and dietary customs infiltrating the British mindset.
Thus, it can be safe to say that in the modern world, with its fast cars, skyscrapers,
computers and nano-technology, the vegetarian diet, and its subsequent need for cow
protection, are concurrent parts of this contemporary mix. For it is precisely here
where the vegetarian diet leads to a subsequent need for farm-animal protection where
cow protection takes off; for now we may be able to see that there is a consumer need
for it due to the desires of the population. Where there are ethical people who
consume a lacto-vegetarian diet, there is an inherent need to protect the farm animals.
Those who refuse to eat meat due to having feelings for the farm animals can not at
the same time be happy with the understanding that animal-derivatives, such as milk
and dairy products, form a part of the same slaughter system. When the cows reach
the end of their economically profitable production they are retired and sent to the
slaughterhouse, now euphemistically called a meat-processing plant. In the present
system, whether one be vegetarian or not, all animal-derived produce, whether meat-
or milk-based, inevitably result in the animals’ slaughter. For the ethical vegetarian,
this fact either leads one to adopt a vegan diet (a diet with no products derived from
animals), a lacto-vegetarian diet whilst stomaching the above facts, or to seek produce
that comes from lifetime-protected farm animals. Thus, whilst we can see that there is
a consumer need for Protection Farms there is at present hardly any production
whatsoever.

Even in India, the cradle of cow protection, cow protection has also fallen into
disrepute. In India, the percentage of cows that can truly be called ‘protected’
dwindles each year. In general, Hindu family-owned cows are sold to local Muslims
who then sell them to Muslim-owned slaughterhouses. We may offer a glimmer of
hope though, for as the sun comes down on cow protection in the East, dawn is
approaching here in the West. VEDA, the Vegetarian Environmental Development
Association, to be found at www.protectionfarms.org , along with other groups, is
leading the way forward. For the past forty years or more, there have been many
groups campaigning against the present industrialised farming system and its mass
slaughter of farm animals. Such work has inevitably brought forward good results in
dietary change and animal welfare standards, but it has not addressed the root of the
problem, and has, as such, been mostly reactive to the present situation and not
proactive, as in promoting a positive, progressive change which addresses the root
cause.
For the vast majority of people whose diet is lacto-vegetarian, the ability to consume
dairy produce coming from lifetime-protected farm animals would be a most welcome
item in their lives. To be able to wear woollen clothing, or even leather from animals
who died of old age, would be a boon. In response to similar articles such as this,
people have written in saying how fantastic it would be to eat ‘Happy Cow’ cheese
with crackers and a hot ‘Happy Cow’ milky drink, eaten peacefully in the knowledge
that no animals were or would be slaughtered in its production. “For me, I would not
really care how much it costs, I would buy it. Its mere existence would make my
day”, wrote in one respondent.
But, think, to the animals themselves it is a literal life saver. The fear of slaughter
would not be on their minds as they watch their older brethren die of old age. The
animal-human relationship could then develop until farm animals are seen as pets,
like dogs and cats. Presently though, billions of animals are taken in fear-stenched
trucks to the place of their inevitable massacre; forced through the gates of death in
such states of fear that we can hardly imagine, even less condone. But in our own
insensitivity, apathy and ignorance we allow all this to continue every single day,
where every field is a concentration camp and every slaughterhouse is the door to
hell.

So with the above information, we may now be more ready to see how cow protection
is relevant to the modern world. We may be able to see that it is more than relevant
and that it is at the point of coming to fruit. Regardless of whether you live in an
economically developed country or an economically less developed country, whilst
there are people there whose dietary custom is lacto-vegetarian there exists a latent
demand for cow protection, for a farming system with lifetime-protected farm
animals. With a little more information and with the necessary force to make things
happen, the road to cow protection can be built knowing there to be a certain
population, wherever you are, who will consume and support these farms.
For more information on the details of Protection Farms - a productive and profitable
farming system with lifetime-protected farm animals, please visit
vwww.protectionfarms.org