3. Immorality in using animal for food and labor

The role of Animals in Buddhism

With special reference to the Jatakas

by Nguyen Thi Kieu Diem | 2012 | 66,083 words

This study studies the role of animals in Indian Buddhism with special reference to the Jatakas鈥攁ncient Pali texts narrating the previous births of the Buddha dating back 2500 years....

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3. Immorality in using animal for food and labor

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The Buddha did not permit his disciples the use of animals for riding or the use of their leather. The Buddha denounced violence and advocated a ban on the killing of animals for the sake of food, sacrifice, sport or pleasure; though it is a matter as to whether he banned violence under all circumstances.^[1]

Animals do not want to ride bicycles, stand on their heads, balance on balls, or jump through rings of fire. Sadly, they have no choice. Trainers use abusive tools, like whips and electric prods, and force them to perform. Not only are elephants, bears, tigers, and other animals abused by trainers, they suffer from extreme loneliness, boredom, and frustration from being locked in tiny cages or chains month after month, city after city. Instead of being treated like furniture that is loaded and unloaded into trucks and storage areas, these animals should be in their natural habitat, exploring, seeking, mates, and raising families. Animals held captive in circuses, rodeos, zoos, and other entertainment venues need you to speak out for them. Teach your community why, for animals鈥� sake, they should go for a hike or take in a baseball game instead of supporting these unkind businesses. Most animals, plants, species, ecosystems, and other natural wholes are left out of direct account.^[2]

In modern society, the only justification for killing animals for food is that people find meat to be convenient and that people enjoy the taste of meat. In other words, meat provides convenience and pleasure. These morally vacant justifications for eating meat should be weighed against unnecessarily killing of billions of animals each year and the devastating effects of meat production on both the environment and human starvation. In the past there may have been some reasonable justifications for eating meat. In most modern societies, it is perfectly possible to live a healthy, normal life without causing the deaths of animals. We still cling to the past out of habit. Animals are eaten neither for health, nor to increase our food supply. Their flesh is a luxury, consumed because people like its taste.^[3]

Human beings also kill animals not just for food. They take the animal鈥檚 skin to make shoes and hats and clothes. And even that is not enough. They take these animal鈥檚 bones to make necklaces or buttons or earrings. In short, they kill many, many animals in order to sell the animal parts for money. Because of these desires and this strong animal consciousness, human beings fight with each other, and destroy nature. They do not value life. So now this whole world has many problems; problems with the water, problems with the air, problems with the earth and food. Many new problems appear every day. These problems do not happen by accident. Human beings make each and every one of these problems. Dogs, cats, or lions, or snakes no animal makes as many problems for this world as human beings do. Humans do not understand their true nature, so they use their thinking and desire to create so much suffering for this world. That is why some people say that human beings are the number one bad animal in this world. So human beings must soon wake up and find their original seeds, their original nature.^[4]

All sentient beings desire to live. All animals try to escape when being killed for food. No living being wants to be killed or hurt. Just as we don鈥檛 wish that anybody should hurt us or killed us, in the same way, no living being wishes to be hurt or killed.^[5] Living in the world, we are all frightened to die or to be killed, whereas we sacrifice the lives of many animals for our pleasure. Perhaps we are a hundred times or a thousand times more cruel than animals. As being intelligent, we open many universities in the world, teaching a variety of subjects. But there are not enough schools to teach how to live in dignity, how to treat kindly between each other, between mankind and living beings. We are killing animals for our food, for their skin, for their ivory to make our ornaments. The problem with eating meat was that it debased human beings to the level of mere animals. For most people in modern, urban shed societies, the principal form of contact with nonhuman animals is at meal times.^[6]

The use of animals for food probably represents the greatest exploitation of them at present. Several billion animals are factory farmed yearly in the United Stated alone, and probably trillions of fish are also harvested annually, to die, apparently in great distress, from suffocation.^[7]

Today, there are a lot of people who love animals and talk about protecting to animal. In the article of the Time Nation, The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has imposed a blanket ban on use of animals like lions, tigers, panthers and monkeys in films. The filmmakers cannot use animals for scenes shot on hard surface, or use them for shot that feature use of explosive. Pappu, an animal lover, said: 鈥淚 certainly will not want to can scenes where we have to show horse falling and hurting themselves but it is ridiculous to stop us from using pigeons and dogs鈥�.^[8]

Anti-hunt campaigners argue that hunting is cruel, causing great suffering and a violent death to animals. In most societies today, it is unnecessary to hunt for food. Hunting had become a sport rather than a necessity.^[9] However, there are some people who do not eat any meat at all. Many Hindus and Buddhists believe in a code of non-violence, and do not kill any animals for food. A number of people in Western countries are vegetarian because they also feel that it is wrong to kill animals for their meat.^[10]