London: Police seized a sacred bull from a Hindu monastery in Wales on Thursday and prepared to take it away for slaughter because the animal had tested positive for tuberculosis, a spokesman for Britain's Hindu Council said.
The plight of the bull, named Shambo, had attracted wide attention since the diagnosis this spring and prompted an Internet petition campaign by the Skanda Vale monastery to save the animal.
''They have broken into the temple and they're taking him away for slaughter,'' said Hindu Council spokesman Sanjay Mistry.
A Webcam site, dubbed Moo Tube, which the monastery set up to show the flower-garlanded bull in his paddock, said Shambo had been taken away, but a live BBC. television report showed the bull in a hay-lined pen.
A veterinary official and two police came to take away Shambo in the morning, but left after monks declined to let them past the monastery gates, saying they needed a warrant.
They returned hours later with the document, but only posted it, apparently unwilling to confront more than 100 Hindu devotees who had gathered in front of the bull's paddock to pray and chant.
But they later took action, and dragged away some of the worshippers who refused to leave. Mistry said no one was hurt.
''It's been peaceful, as we've said all along,'' he said. ''It's bad, but I don't blame the police because they were friendly and they did their duty,'' said one of the worshippers, Verena Blum.
Regulations stipulate that cattle suspected of carrying bovine tuberculosis be slaughtered; the disease can be spread to other cattle, to deer and in rare cases to humans.
But Hindus saw the controversy as a religious freedom issue.
''This is about the freedom of human beings to express their religious values,'' said a monk, known as Brother Alex. ''We can't be party to the destruction of life.''
The monastery suggested it could keep Shambo isolated to prevent the TB spreading. Another monk, known as Brother Michael, said a charity in India had offered to take Shambo, but that authorities had declined permission.
Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society which opposes what it sees as excessive religious influence in government affairs, on Thursday said Shambo's supporters were ''putting religious dogma before the welfare of the community ... This case represents another example of religious bodies trying to put themselves above the law.''
Last week, a Welsh judge ordered local authorities to reconsider their decision to kill the bull, considered sacred in the Hindu faith.
But the Court of Appeal in London reversed that decision Monday, ruling that killing him would be justified to prevent the disease's spread.
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