Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics

Kenneth R. Valpey is a research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK. Besides Hindu animal ethics, he has published on Vaishnava Hindu temple worship traditions and on India’s enduring favorite of bhakti literature, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

• 1. Introduction.- 2. The Release of Cosmic Cows.- 3. Cows in Contested Fields.- 4. Surveying the Cow Care Field.- 5. Cow Care and the Ethics of Care.- 6. "These Cows Will Not Be Lost" - Envisioning A Care-Full Future for Cows.- 7. Concluding Ruminations.

“It is a work of ethics meant also for a wider audience. … Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics thinks within the Hindu tradition without posting an exotic, perfect India; it reads history with a sympathy that is real but critical; it is a constructive work of ethics that will interest the wide range of readers who care about the earth, its community of living beings, and a future in which no living being is left behind.” (Francis X. Clooney, International Journal of Hindu Studies, Vol. 26 (2), 2022)“The book succeeds in providing an account of the topic that is well-informed, practically engaged and constructive in advocating forbetter treatment of cows.” (David Clough, Modern Believing, Vol. 61 (3), July, 2020)