Revoke cattle transport rules: Beefeaters forum

COIMBATORE: A group of 25 members of the "Beefeaters welfare association' here on Monday urged the Coimbatore district collector to withdraw the rules for transporting cattle to neighbouring Kerala as they had a chain effect on their beef trade.

In a petition to the collector, they said while transporting large number of cattle, steps by cow protection activities to seize the cattle, ostensibly to prevent cruelty to animals, was hitting the beef trade hard.

Explaining their rationale, they said transporting less than 50 cattle in a lorry was not economical for the merchants. And when all the cattle is seized from any lorry, they lose their investments too, the members claimed, adding, this was one key factor in the price of beef going up. Dearer beef deprived beefeaters of protein-rich food for those who believed that non-vegetarian food gave lot more strength and stamina to the people. They even cited the country's poor performance in international games like Olympics, as foreigners who bagged most of the medals were regular beef-eaters.  However, officials were not impressed by their explanation, and termed it a “drama staged by cattle merchants.”