Herd of protestors gather to save Edinburgh restaurant's cow

A herd of demonstrators dressed as cows congregated outside Edinburgh's Kyloe restaurant & grill yesterday, in protest against a decision by Edinburgh City Council to remove a large replica cow that juts out of the venue's first floor window over the street.

The bovine replica has been in place at the restaurant for two years, but now authorities in the Scottish city have started formal enforcement proceedings for the removal of the Kyloe cow.

According to the council, the cow sculpture is to be removed because of the "detrimental effect on the character of the listed building and on the amenity of the area caused by its position." as stated in the letter issued by a planning officer of the City of Edinburgh Council.

The letter continued: "The property is statutory listed Category A and is located within the New Town Conservation Area. As such, the cow sculpture would require the benefit of express listed building consent which would not be forthcoming from the City of Edinburgh Council."

Yesterday's protest came after the decision to remove the cow made national news on STV at Six in December. At that time, the council said it "would of course be happy to discuss the issue."

A spokesperson for the restaurant asked: "Why now? It's been up for the last two years. It's practically an Edinburgh landmark, a symbolic icon! So many customers find Kyloe by the cow and love the cow. It's a really poor show the council are now asking for it to be taken down. What harm is it doing?"

They added: "The inconvenience caused by the poor execution of the tram works, over the last few years really hurt us because customers couldn't find the restaurant and couldn't get to it. The cow was a means of overcoming this. The City of Edinburgh Council has allegedly turned a blind eye to the sculpture during the tram works fiasco."

It is urging customers to sign a petition to keep the cow, which can be found at: www.petitions24.com/save_the_kyloe_cow