Cock and bull talk about meat - Editorial

While the Government is to import 20,000 milch cows from Australia at a staggering cost of about Rs. 9.6 billion in foreign exchange to revive the dairy milk industry, a leading Deputy Minister shocked the country this week when he made a strong speech defending the slaughter of cattle and other animals.

Livestock and Rural Community Development Deputy Minster H.R. Mithrapala, speaking in Parliament during the debate on new regulations under the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, accused those whom he sarcastically referred to as “modern-day devadattes” of having the ulterior motive of trying to sabotage Sri Lanka’s development programme by campaigning for a ban on the slaughter of cattle and other animals.

The Deputy Minster claimed that consumption of meat was vital for the nourishment of growing children and those who were campaigning against meat-eating must take the responsibility if our next generation was malnourished. Mr. Mithrapala did not stop at the nutrition level. He claimed that even the Buddha Dhamma was not against the consumption of meat. Mr. Mithrapala quoted some lesser- known verse from the Dhamma conveniently ignoring the fact that the main theme of Buddhism is “may all beings be happy.”

One of Sri Lanka’s most qualified nutritionists Dr. Damayanthi Perera said yesterday that all the nutrition that Sri Lankan children and other people needed could be obtained from fresh cows’ milk, scores of vegetables and fruits, rice, green gram, cowpea and other local food items.

For the past few years, leading Buddhist monks and animal rights groups have been calling for a ban on cattle slaughter saying the horrifying way these cattle were butchered was an insult to Buddhism, human values and Sri Lanka’s hallowed civilisation which dates back to more than 2,500 years. On Vesak day last year, a Buddhist monk burnt himself to death in front of the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy in support of the campaign to ban cattle slaughter. Since then, monks and others have marched from the Dalada Maligawa to Colombo and from Kataragama to Colombo, calling for a ban on cattle slaughter as a first step toward the total ban on the of killing of all animals. They say that by doing this Sri Lanka will not only be upholding Buddhist and human values, but also promoting vegetarianism which many people-friendly nutritionists including Dr. Damayanthi Perera say is the best diet for good human health.



All the nutrition that Sri Lankan children and other people needed could be obtained from fresh cows’ milk, scores of vegetables and fruits, rice, green gram, cowpea and other local food items



Meat-eating is scientifically known to be one of the main causes of high cholesterol, which leads to various forms of heart diseases. Knowing this, most people continue to eat fatty meats and when the bad cholesterol rises, they are given statins which when taken in high doses for long periods are known to cause kidney or liver failure. In the United States and other western countries, where the people consume large quantities of beef and other fatty meats, obesity has reached epidemic proportions with as many as 40 percent of the people known to be carrying far too much fat in their bellies and other parts of their bodies. That is why in the US about 30 per cent of deaths are cases where children are dying before their parents, largely due to a fatty diet and a lifestyle that lacks physical exercise.

With all this evidence available, we urge President Mahinda Rajapaksa to tell his Ministers and Deputy Ministers like Mr. Mithrapala to stop playing around with the lives of people and also making a mockery of Buddhism in the process.