RALPH LAURINO: RARE COLOR FILM – SAN FRANCISCO 1968

Posted by Ralph Laurino | editor http://protectacow.typepad.com/ |
6.5 Slaughterhouse Civilization | Srila Prabhupada: […] Yes, this is our proposal. Why should you kill the cow? Let the cow be protected. You can take the cow’s milk and use this milk for making so many nutritious, delicious preparations.

Aside from that, as far as meat-eating is concerned, every cow will die–so you just wait a while, and there will be so many dead cows. Then you can take all the dead cows and eat. So how is this a bad proposal? If you say, “You are restraining us from meat-eating”–no, we don’t restrain you. We simply ask you, “Don’t kill. When the cow is dead, you can eat it.”
Yogesvara dasa: You’ve pointed out that the cow is just like a mother.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. She gives us her milk.
Yogesvara dasa: But in the West now, when their parents grow old the people generally send them away to old age homes. So if people have no compassion even toward their own parents, how can we educate them to protect the cow?
Srila Prabhupada: They don’t have to protect the cow. We shall protect the cow. Simply we ask them, “Don’t purchase meat from the slaughterhouse. We shall supply you the cow after her death.” Where is the difficulty?
Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami: Not enough meat fast enough–they’re eating so much meat.
Srila Prabhupada: “Not enough”? By killing the cows, how will you get any more meat? The total number of cows will remain the same. Simply wait for their natural death. That is the only restriction. You have got a limited number of cows. Either you wait for their death or you kill them at once–the number of cows is the same. So we simply ask you, “Don’t kill them. Wait for their natural death and then take the meat.” What is the difficulty? And we simply ask you, “As long as they’re alive, let us take the cow’s milk and prepare delicious foods for the whole human society.”
Yogesvara dasa: If people don’t kill the cows they will have even more meat, because that way the cows will have more time to reproduce more cows. If they don’t kill the cows right away, there will be even more cows.
Srila Prabhupada: More cows, yes. They’ll have more cows. We simply request, “Don’t kill. Don’t maintain slaughterhouses.” That is very sinful. It brings down very severe karmic reactions upon society. Stop these slaughterhouses. We don’t say, “Stop eating meat.” You can eat meat, but don’t take it from the slaughterhouse, by killing. Simply wait, and you’ll get the carcasses.
After all, how long will the cows live? Their maximum age is twenty years, and there are many cows who live only eighteen, sixteen, or ten years. So wait that much time; then regularly get dead cows and eat. What is the difficulty?
For the first few years you may not get quite as much as now. During that time you can eat some dogs and cats. [Laughter.] Yes. In Korea they eat dogs. What is the difference between here and Korea? You can also eat dogs for the time being. Or hogs. Eat hogs. We don’t prohibit the killing of these less important animals. We neither sanction nor prohibit. But especially we request cow protection, because it is ordered by Lord Krsna. Go-raksya: “Protect the cows.” That is our duty.