For whatever reasons, religious or not - cow is still our national animal and it should be logical that a national animal be not slaughtered. However, in most of the countries the national animals are something that are indigenous, rare and exotic - like our danfe. The golden eagle of the USA. The royal bengal tiger of India, etc. Hence, I would also pick some exotic and idigenous animal as our national animal - something like snow leopard, red panda or the one-horn rhino?? Cow is a common animal that is found all over the world and does not necessarily represent Nepal. However, that is debatable since Nepal is prodominantly Hindu and the Hindus will be reluctant let go of a religious symbol of Hinduism. And since there is no harm in it, we should not fight over it. Although sometimes I wonder why is cow so revered and not the dog or the crow which has equal status during the tihar festival. What about the monkeys - monkeys are also supposed to be holy. And the snake that so graciously makes a magnificent garland for Lord Shiva. Or Ganesha's mouse. The ancient Vedic or Hindu religion evidently respected and worshipped nature. And that is one of the greatness of Hinduism - at least the ancient Vedic form of it. It's a different story now - like every other religion, the zealots have taken over hinduism as well. That is why I like to call myself spiritual rather than religious even though I believe in Jesus because in spite of being a Christian I don't agree with the right-wing Christian fanatic philosophy.

Coming back to cows, I still believe that as long as cows are our national animals, we should not be killing them. As for making beef readily available, we can live without beef - it is not an extremely necessary food item but still it would be fair for those who are not religiously bound to be able to enjoy the food they like.

And it is true that many Nepalese people still stay off beef even though they are not hindus. I respect their choice too. For some people it is nepalese tradition not to eat beef and that also sounds reasonable.

The bottom line is that I believe every person should be able to decide for himself or herself and not be dictated by someone else's religious or political beliefs - as long as he or she does not endager or violate other people by doing so.