A HINDU animal sanctuary has come to the rescue of a calf, which was all set to enter the slaughterhouse, because it has three eyes. According to the it, the animal is a holy cow.
The calf was bought from a beef farmer for £5,000 by the Jain Animal Sanctuary so that it could be worshipped. Cows are known to be sacred in Hindu religion and the body rescuing the animal believes its third eye in the middle of the forehead means it is not ordinary and should not be killed.
The calf has been given the name of Mahadev, which is another name for Hindu God Shiva, whose third eye signified wisdom and insight. The animal is currently being kept at a farm in Leicester.
Jake Jones, the calf’s owner had planned to send it to the slaughterhouse along with the rest of a herd at his beef farm in Wales, The Telegraph, reported. He said he reared 3,000 calves every year but never saw something bizarre like the calf before.
Malan Hughes, a vet from North Wales, investigated Mahadev’s third eye while testing cattle in Wales for tuberculosis a few months ago. She said she has seen things like animals with two heads but never saw something like this. She said the calf doesn’t act differently from the two-eyed ones and that it is impossible to know whether the animal can see with its third eye. The vet added that the cow’s extra eye looked fine from outside. “It has eyelids and eyelashes, and it is moist too, as if some kind of lubricant is being secreted,” she added.
Hughes was confident that the animal will live a normal life.
Nitin Mehta, the founder of the sanctuary that took Mahadev, said the calf’s appearance makes it “especially significant” and its uniqueness must be cherished.
“We are very proud and blessed to inform everyone that we have rescued a three-eyed bull from slaughter in Wales. We have named him Mahadev. It’s an honour and privilege to be given the opportunity to provide love and care to Mahadev!” the sanctuary said.
Not rare in India
Animals with unique features are not rare in India, a country with a Hindu majority. In 2014, a three-eyed calf called Shiva made headlines in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and was worshipped as a religious deity. The same year, another man from the western Indian state of Maharashtra had a cow with five legs with its fifth limb protruding from its neck. He took the animal for a tour across the country as people came to see it and sought its blessings.
However, the case in the UK is believed to be something that has happened in the country’s history for the first time.
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event
Pope Francis greets Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit near Bari, Italy, in June last year, as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and then British prime minister Rishi Sunak look on