A 2-year-old calf in the Indian city of Mumbai refused to get slaughtered by running away from the butchery house on New Year's Day.

The calf was rescued by the members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, when he kept butchers at bay for nearly seven hours.

According to J.C. Khanna of the SCPA, the calf refused to be led into a Mumbai slaughterhouse, along with hundreds of buffaloes and goats.

AP reports that the SCPA team was able to get close enough only on Tuesday morning and injected the frightened calf with a sedative.

The calf was only slightly injured while scrambling around the warehouse.

"His body was bruised because he ran around the warehouse and was hit all over," said Khanna. "But he is the luckiest animal out of so many thousands that were slaughtered that day. He saved his own life."

Monday was also the Muslim festival of Eid in Mumbai when sheep, cows, goats and bulls are sacrificed during the religious holiday.

Though it is considered non-religious to eat beef in the Hindu-dominated society of India, many Muslim states do eat cow meat.