Hindu sect in Wales objects to seizure of sacred bull

Police seized a sacred bull Thursday from a Hindu monastery in Wales, cutting open locked gates and dragging away protesters before taking the animal to be destroyed because it had tested positive for tuberculosis.

The plight of Shambo the bull attracted worldwide attention after the diagnosis this spring and prompted the Skanda Vale monastery to create an Internet petition to try to save him. Hindus revere cattle and say killing the bull violates their religious rights.

Swami Suryananda, one of Shambo’s caretakers, said officials “committed the most violent and ignorant act of desecration of our temple and destroyed an innocent life.”

Welsh authorities refused to say where or how Shambo would be killed. Regulations stipulate that cattle suspected of carrying bovine tuberculosis be slaughtered because the disease can spread to other cattle, to deer and, though rarely, to humans.