'Sacred' bullock Shambo spared from being slaughtered

London, July 16 (UNI) The ''sacred'' bullock Shambo, due to be slaughtered after it tested positive for TB, has been saved after a High Court judge quashed a government order.

Monks from the multi-faith Skanda Vale community in Carmarthenshire appealed against an Assembly government ruling that the animal must be put down.

Their lawyers argued it would breach the Human Rights Convention.

The Welsh Assembly Government however maintained that killing Shambo would eliminate the risk of the disease from spreading. The reasons for the judgement would be given later.

The Assembly government said it was considering the verdict and is due to release a statement shortly.

The decision came after lawyers representing both the Assembly government and the Skanda Vale community laid out their arguments in a hearing in Cardiff on Thursday. The Judges had adjourned the hearing to consider over the weekend whether there should be a judicial review on the proposed slaughter.

David Anderson QC for the Hindu monks at the Skanda Vale community near Llanpumsaint, Wales, said Shambo was an animal of ''considerable religious importance'' and as such, a policy devised for farm animals could not be applied to it.

He said members of the community believed that slaughtering the six-year-old black Friesian would be '' a desecration of the temple''.

He referred to Article Nine of the European Convention of Human Rights which guarantees '' the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion'' and the right to '' manifest religion or belief in worship''.

Mr Anderson said slaughtering Shambo would be a ''serious infringement of a deeply-held belief''.

But Clive Lewis, QC for the Welsh Assembly Government, said bovine tuberculosis was an infectious disease capable of transmission to other animals, including wildlife and humans.

Mr Lewis also told the court there was no accepted treatment for bovine TB in the UK and that under controlled measures, slaughter was carried out to protect human and animal health.

A campaign to save Shambo includes an online petition which has attracted more than 20,000 names. A video stream has also been broadcast live from Shambo's pen in the temple.

UNI