Thugs smash Hare Krishna sign

Vilas Brown with the vandalised cow statue at the Hare Krisha farm.

John Gass TWE170112hare

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THE Hare Krishna community at Eungella is considering installing security lighting after repeated acts of vandalism at the entrance to the farm.

The community built a new sign featuring a bull statue a few months ago, which has attracted a string of graffiti attacks.

Crude drawings and the words "Islam for Lyf"(sic) have been sprayed across the sign and in the most recent attack, the bull's horns were smashed from its head.

Resident Damoda Dasa said the community had contacted the police, but the vandalism had been a problem for years.

"A few years ago they lit one of our bins on the bridge, trying to burn the bridge down," Mr Dasa said.

"Sometimes people will come hooning through the farm, running over all our fruit trees.

"We're exploring the idea of some form of surveillance but it all costs a lot of money."

Vilas Brown said she had anticipated the sign would attract attention.

"This is the first time we've done a sign like this and we anticipated we'd get some trouble.

"It's ignorance, they have no understanding of our beliefs or what we do here, we have nothing to do with Islam.

"We're part of the community, some of the residents own local businesses and the kids all go to local schools."

"We invite 300 people to the farm every Sunday, people are always welcome here so this is very frustrating."

The community was set up in the 1970s as part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

The beliefs of the residents are based in Vedic Hinduism with focal points in respect for people of all walks of life, organic vegetable gardening and vegetarian cooking, temple worship, meditation, and chanting.

The cow is a sacred animal with dairy products forming an important part of their diet.

If you have any information on the vandalism contact PoliceLink on 131 444.