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Wild cows and elephants eat at a garbage dump northeast of Colombo. Stock Photography.
Cow slaughter will soon be banned in Sri Lanka, says the country’s government. Thus, Sri Lanka joins neighboring India, where the Hindu nationalist government has banned the slaughter of cows for religious reasons. There, however, the ban is said to have caused an increase in cows roaming the streets and created chaos in traffic.
Observers see the Sri Lankan trait as a concession to increasingly influential Buddhists within the country’s ruling party, as many Buddhists abstain from beef out of compassion for animals. The country’s beef industry is dominated primarily by Muslims, who make up around ten percent of the population.
Sri Lanka’s largest Muslim party is now calling for financial support for those who make a living in the sector.
“This should not be used as a tactic to divert attention from the most pressing economic and political problems facing people,” said Rauff Hakeem of the Muslim Congress party of Sri Lanka.
