The prohibition of cattle slaughter which has been bruited around for many moons was announced last week with our stablemate, The Island reporting on its front page that the government had approved a ban on cattle slaughter. This subject also made news some weeks ago but was laid by, possibly out of concern of hurting Muslim sentiments. Muslims generally are beef eaters and for as long as living memory serves, and probably much longer, they have controlled the beef and mutton stalls in Municipal and other markets. Most butchers belong to that community and previous efforts to ban cattle slaughter has been strongly resisted by Muslims.

Although Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country and Buddhism frowns on the taking of life, most Buddhists are carnivorous. True many Buddhists do not eat beef but are quite happy to eat mutton (actually goat meat in this country), chicken and fish. Many of them accept in their minds and hearts that consuming fish, flesh and fowl run against the tenets of their religion, but they lack the will power to give up their carnivorous ways of pandering to their senses. Not eating beef, of course, has cultural roots. Cattle serve man as draft animals and help us to till our fields and cows give us milk. So how can we as claimed Buddhists eat beef? In India, the vast majority of the Hindu population is vegetarian and the cow is a sacred animal. Many non-vegetarians here say that had they lived in India, it would have been easy to convert to vegetarianism.

The report we quoted in our opening paragraph, though stating that government had approved prohibiting cattle slaughter, did not say that beef eating was being prohibited. It has already been announced that import of beef will be permitted. Last week’s announcement merely said that the Legal Draftsman has completed amendments to certain Acts and Ordinances including the Cattle Slaughter Ordinance No. 9 of 1893, Act No. 29 of 1958 concerning animals, Sections 252 and 255 of the Municipal Councils Ordinance and Ordinance No. 15 of the Urban Council Act of 1987. It added that the Attorney General had certified that these Bills did not clash with the Constitution.

Given the government’s current foreign exchange-strapped situation, how much money will be available for beef imports? That is anybody’s guess. Will it be possible to procure from abroad quantities of beef now consumed by ordinary people at prices they can afford? We have our doubts. Beef and other exotic meat and fish are already imported to the country. The finest Australian beef, lamb, salmon and what have you are on the menus of top-end restaurants in posh hotels and elsewhere – of course at a very high price. They can also be purchased at gourmet food shop and delicatessens although only the very rich patronize such establishments. We are struggling to revive our tourism industry on which very heavy investments have been made and non-availability of epicurean cuisine in the menus of existing classy hotels and restaurants will obviously hinder that not only short term but also in the medium and longer terms. We live in a largely non-vegetarian world and even in India, home to a very large population of vegetarian Hindus where cows are held as holy, cattle slaughter is not prohibited.

Animals as much as humans have a right to life and that is unarguable. Buddhists exhort ‘may all beings be well and happy’ but too many Buddhist live lives which makes that impossible. Goats, pigs, fish, chicken etc. have as much right to life as humans or cattle whose slaughter is to be prohibited. The moral argument against killing cannot be enforced in a lopsided way where some are more free than others although that’s the prevailing order. Hundreds of thousands of our people depend on fisheries for their livelihoods. Is it practical to enforce a ban on fisheries? President Premadasa, influenced by a Buddhist monk he held in the highest regard, imposed a prohibition on state participation in the inland fisheries industry. Large investment made thereon was jettisoned but with years passing, the restrictions were relaxed and the state is once again active in this field. There is little doubt that most dairy cows, once their milk providing days are over, end up with the butcher. So also chickens when they do not lay enough eggs to be economically viable. Also, broiler chickens are widely farmed for their meat. There is no escaping the reality that enforcing a ban on cattle slaughter will be fraught with immense practical difficulties. We will have to wait and see whether these will be overcome and the intention implemented.

Ironically, it was only at the end of last year when it was reported that Asia’s largest meat processing plant was opened in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone by no less than Minister Namal Rajapaksa with other political VIPs in attendance. Social media seized on this in the context of government’s expressed intention on prohibiting cattle slaughter. That report was not accurate. While a large meat processing facility had in fact been opened and is now running in the Katunayake EPZ, it is certainly not Asia’s (nor South Asia’s) largest. It is an export targeting value adding project which, while using some imported beef (though not much), was working mainly with local chicken meat and also has plans for a fish processing factory . The promoter is taking advantage of fiscal incentives for value addition to develop an export segment of his meat processing business. All this amply demonstrates the prevailing hypocrisy in Sri Lanka’s methods of governance. Examples are too numerous to mention so do take your pick.