UK court says Hindu sacred bull Shambo must die

LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) Shambo, a sacred bull kept by a group of Hindus in Wales who has tested positive for bovine tuberculosis, can be slaughtered, a London court ruled today overturning a last week's block on his death sentence.

However, it's not all over for Shambo as the case is likely to be taken to Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, for a final verdict.

The Shambo saga began earlier this month when the Welsh Assembly regional government ordered that the six-year-old animal, the temple bull at the Skanda Vale community in Llanpumsaint, Carmarthen, should be killed on health grounds.

Cows are sacred to Hindus and more than 20,000 people signed a petition to save Shambo. They have and constructed a special shrine to Shambo within their main temple.

The believers argued he was healthy and that to kill him would be ''an appalling desecration of life, the sanctity of our temple and Hinduism''.

Last week, the High Court in Cardiff, Wales, agreed with the group, the Community of the Many Names of God, that Shambo should be saved because the Welsh Assembly's decision failed to give enough weight to their religious rights.

However, the Assembly appealed against that verdict and today London's Court of Appeal ruled the minister's original decision to order Shambo's slaughter was ''justified'' on public health grounds.

''I have come to the conclusion that the minister was entitled to make the decision she did, having regard to the very considerable problem presented by bovine tuberculosis,'' said Lord Justice Malcolm Pill.

There was no immediate reaction from the Hindu community as they said they wanted to examine the ruling in full.

REUTERS SY BD2241