Author: ANS
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 15, 2006
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1372522,curpg-1.cms
An American Hindu couple in a village near
New York is fighting for their religious rights over treatment of cows on
their farm.
Linda and Stephen Voith, followers of the
Hindu bhakti tradition, made Angelica, the picturesque village in western
New York, their home, intending to follow a Brahmanical way of life, protecting
the cows they owned and treating them as they would fellow humans.
However, their neighbours, finding this a
ludicrous situation, decided the cows wouldn't stay.
The family's attorney, Ross Scott, told IANS
that the Voiths were denied due process and their right to a fair trial in
2003 when the state Supreme Court Judge Michael Nenno refused to allow them
a first amendment defence and dismissed the family's claims that the village
deprived them of religious rights. The judge did not allow even a mention
of the word religion at the hearing.
"The village of Angelica has no objection
when the Amish (a religious sect) are going through the town on their buggies
or tying up their horses and stopping, but the Voiths were harassed for their
oxen cart crossing a 10-foot lane," said Scott.
Local law says that if "your property
comprises 10 acres or more, you can have as many farm animals as you like".
Scott stands as pro bono lawyer since he believes that the values that he
had helped to defend from foreign enemies were at risk within home.
For the Voiths, this is a battle for their
religious rights, not just a reassertion of their compliance with local laws.
Believing their practice was only meant to
show a "humane, responsible example of cow protection", Steven Voith
said, "The village allows a beef farm to operate right across the street
from our home. If they allow cows for secular reasons within the village,
they should allow religiously revered cows too."
Incidentally, the village had been a contentious
battlefield even earlier for religious groups such as the Amish, the Mormons
and the Jehovah Witnesses.
