Two more 'sacred' animals will be put down tomorrow at a Hindu religious commune where Shambo the bullock was slaughtered after testing positive for bovine TB.

Elin Jones, the Welsh Rural Affairs Minister, today served notice on monks at the Skanda Vale community in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, that vets would be arriving at 8.30am to confiscate a young water buffalo and an old bullock.

Both animals have tested positive for suspected bovine TB and, according to animal health regulations, must therefore be slaughtered.

The vets could meet similar demonstrations tomorrow to that which they received when Shambo was taken and killed by a lethal injection last month.

On that occasion, Hindu monks and their supporters - who had designated the bull as sacred - locked the monastery's gates and would not allow the vets in.

When officials accompanied by police eventually cut the locks, they had to force their way through a crowd of protesters to confiscate Shambo.

A campaign to save Shambo went all the way to the High Court. As part of their bid to save the animal, the monks even set up a webcam which filmed Shambo's activities and broadcast them online.

Speaking to Times Online this afternoon, Brother Michael said that the vets would meet demonstrations tomorrow, as all the commune's animals are regarded as sacred - but would not disclose what was planned.

"We can't be party to any action which is going to assist the authorities slaughter of our animals," he said.

"There is not much we can do. But what we will make sure is that we use tomorrow as an opportunity to highlight as severely limited the flaws and problems with the policy of slaughtering animals."

He added: "We are monks and nuns. We are not going to go down the route of the environment protesters at Heathrow, for example.

"What we will do is to hold a service for the animals, and we will publicly ask questions of the vets when they arrive.

"There will be quite a few film crews here, and quite rightly because this is a very important issue."

Announcing his intention to slaughter the animals, Mr Jones said: "Today, formal notices have been issued to the community at Skanda Vale for two more bovines at the community to be put down to bring the outbreak of bovine TB there under control."

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