Source: SFGate.com

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/06/08/national0135EDT0417.DTL

On June 8, 2003 SFGate.com reported that nine cows "live on Sastri's Lakshmi Cow Sanctuary, one of a scattered web of safe havens across the country protecting the animals from slaughter... For Indians and followers of Hinduism, cows have a historical and cultural sanctity not easily understood in the West... A court recently told a family, who are followers of a form of Krishna Consciousness, that it cannot keep cows on its village property because of zoning rules. The family -- Stephen Voith, his wife, Linda, and the family's two children -- now plan to move to Sastri's sanctuary with their four cows. Voith believes the court decision amounts to religious persecution."