Beef and Murder

The Idaho Cattle Association featured the following little tidbit. I'm putting it on the program not because I think it's particularly newsworthy, but I do think it's entertaining. Residents of India's financial capital, Mumbai, could be forgiven for wondering how they suddenly face five years in prison for eating beef. A beef ban was among about 80 bills passed by India's state governments that are awaiting presidential endorsement. Others include moves to ban camel slaughter and exempt bullfighting from a measure to prevent animal cruelty in Goa.

Other proposals are now under consideration . In Haryana, which borders the country's capital, they may introduce a bill to ban beef and cow slaughter. Under the rule, offenders would face murder charges, it said, citing Haryana's Education Minister Rambilas Sharma. Government has set up rapid action groups of 50 men each to stop trucks carrying cattle to be slaughtered in neighboring, a Muslim-majority country, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.

Most in Mumbai only found out about the beef ban when Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra's chief minister, thanked President Pranab Mukherjee for signing the bill in a Twitter post. Residents could previously buy beef from restaurants and sidewalk food stalls. Several protests have emerged since it came into force. Beef traders demonstrated in Mumbai while protesters in the southern state of Kerala -- where consumption is not prohibited -- cooked beef out in public and called on the ban to be lifted.??