Goa govt sends ‘meat eating’ cows for treatment, wants them turned herbivore

Believe it or not, but Goa’s Garbage Management Minister Michael Lobo has claimed that stray cattle in the state’s coastal belt, which includes popular beach villages like Calangute and Candolim, have "turned non-vegetarian" and only eat scraps of “chicken and fried fish”.

Lobo, who is a BJP MLA from Calangute Assembly constituency, also said that 76 stray cattle from Calangute village, impounded and relocated to a gaushala, were refusing to have fodder and that specialist veterinarians have been roped in to wean them off their meat fetish.

"We have lifted 76 cattle from Calangute and taken them to a gaushala in Mayem village, where they are being well looked after. We always say cattle are vegetarian. But cattle from Calangute have turned non-vegetarian and do not eat grass, gram or the special cattle feed given to them," Lobo said, on the sidelines of a village function in Arpora village in North Goa on Saturday.

"Earlier, the cattle from Calangute and Candolim would smell meat and move on, but due to consumption of meat, now they prefer only meat," he said.

"Specialist veterinarians have been roped in by the gaushala to medically treat the cattle. It will take four to five days to get them back to having grass again," said Lobo, who is a former deputy speaker.