Lancashire Farm Dairies (LFD) has issued an apology to the Hindu community after holding a cow yoga session at their Leyland farm which was deemed to “trivializes two serious concepts of Hinduism”.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who is President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said that cows have viewed as sacred within the world’s oldest religion group and should not be used as prop for human entertainment.
In a statement from Nevada, USA today, Mr Zed thanked LFD for understanding the concerns of Hindu community and for confirming the event will not be held it again.
He also pointed out that objective of yoga, which found reference in world’s oldest extant scripture Rig-Veda and other early Hindu texts, was the state of blissful liberation.
The statesman also suggested that companies like LFD should send their senior executives for training in religious and cultural sensitivity to better understand the feelings of customers and communities when introducing new products.
Jack Morrison, brand manager at LFD, sent an email to Mr Zed, saying: “We can only apologise if the recent fitness activity has caused offense, as you can imagine this wasn’t our intent…there will not be further events.”
Described as UK's first cow yoga class, Mr Zed noted the event should have been discouraged before it became a “trendy fad”, with many visualizing it as an Instagram opportunity.
Yoga fans are advised to not attend events where cows were inappropriately used, causing unnecessary disturbance to the animals and putting them in stressful situations.
