Kindness to Animals

  There cannot be kindness to animals without refraining from eating their flesh. Eating animal flesh helps and encourages the slaughter of animals. Eating one or a few types of animals is as bad as eating any animal. No human dies of not eating animal flesh. No human weakens physically or mentally by not eating animal flesh.

No mental or spiritual advancement is ever possible with the guilt of encouraging the slaughter of animals lingering in one’s mind. Kindness towards one animal, and eating the flesh of another, does not make any sense. Who are we fooling but ourselves.

Will flesh-eaters ever realize the violence that is ingrained in them. Observe them with care - cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chicken and fish are as innocent and lovable as your own pet. Eating their flesh is as bad as eating your pet’s flesh. Why do you wash the blood off when preparing the flesh you eat. Isn’t it a waste? Why not make a drink out of it.

When your mother ceased having milk to feed you, it was cow’s milk that you had to grow and live. You grow up and begin to eat its flesh. Is that your form of gratitude for your substitute “mother”?.

No sensible person should respect flesh-eaters. They support killing. How can anyone respect killers. They cannot hope to get the respect even from animals. Eating animals flesh, how can they expect respect from animals – they are worse than animals. If animals can talk, “don’t kill us” will be the first words they will utter. Their first question will be “why do you eat our flesh?” – we don’t eat yours!.

An end to inhumane cattle slaughter
Recently, one of the Sinhala dailies, reported an inhuman act performed on a cattle that had met with a train accident. A Buddhist monk and some villagers, treated this innocent animal with the help of a veterinary surgeon. He was fast recovering. One morning, they found, someone had mercilessly removed a hind leg and the animal was in a pool of blood, in severe pain.

In the Indo-Aryan culture, cattle occupy a very significant place. The cow is like a mother. The bull and the buffalo provide bread and butter to all of us. We consume her milk daily. Cattle are so close to our day-to-day life and they serve us in numerous ways.
According to some statistics, about 1,500-2,000 cattle are inhumanely slaughtered daily, in Sri Lanka. Specially, as Buddhists, who are a majority in Sri Lanka, we utter the Five Precepts daily, but, should we not ask ourselves, whether, we truly, observe the First Precept, which is to abstain from killing.

It is very unfortunate, in the Dharmadivpa, cattle are slaughtered and tortured in a very inhuman manner. It is a horrible, horrendous sight to watch. This is a sight you will never ever want to witness.