Helping one being by harming another
syrphus
New
Hello all, I hope it's okay for me to ask for some input on here.
For context, I am a volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation unit. It is very fulfilling, fascinating work which I love, but it involves working closely with life, suffering, death, and nature, and sometimes this means having to make difficult decisions.
At the moment, it is baby bird season. Many hatchling and nestling birds are being brought in who have been orphaned, or injured, or had their nests destroyed. They all require different food. Some can be fed plant-based diets; others, we syringe-feed baby bird mix; some are meat-eaters.
Among the meat-eaters are a few who can only eat live meal-worms. Last week, one such tiny bird was brought in. My supervisor explained that the whole mealworms might be too large for them -- I might have to cut them up for the bird to be able to eat them.
It is all voluntary and I could have refused, but then, either the bird would go hungry and be so much less likely to survive, or someone else would have to do the very job I had refused. It was my responsibility, and I was determined to help the bird, so I made up my mind to do it. I cut the mealworm in half -- after which it was still alive -- and I gave it to the baby bird. It was hard to do, and it, and associated guilt, has been on my mind since. I'm not sure, though, if there's any right answer in such a situation as this.
The problem is that I am likely to have to make such a decision as this again, in the future. My options are to do the same again, or not to. If I don't, either the bird will go hungry, or someone else will do it. In the case of the latter, if there is negative karma associated, I would be avoiding it myself, but passing it onto someone else -- and it would make no difference to the worm.
I know that some would argue that we should not be interfering at all, but leaving it up to nature to decide whether or not they survive. It is my personal opinion, though, that this is no longer a real option. So many of our animals are brought in due to human causes -- road accidents, trees knocked down, injuries from garden equipment, loss of habitat -- even if it were not because of humankind that they were suffering, I would do everything I could to help. I eat a vegan diet myself but when an animal needs meat to survive, I will feed them meat. Usually, however, this is in tinned or dry form. I had never before directly harmed insects for this purpose.
What would you do? I really appreciate any thoughtful responses, regardless of whether you would have made the same choice.
Comments
Your intention is pure.
The birds need to eat and if you do good in your job and I am sure you do ... you will have to toughen up a little ...
Bravo incidentally
You can buy mealworm which are already dead. The nutritive value is not compromised.
Thank you both for your responses.
Yes, we feed the dried ones which are already dead to older birds when they are more able to feed by themselves, and to some of the other animals (e.g. hedgehogs.)
For the babies still in need of hand-feeding, the moisture of the worms is very important so that they don't become dehydrated -- I am looking into this more though, and wondering if soaking might be an option.
There is also the aspect of the fresh, live mealworms being more appealing to them, so that they are more likely to be tempted to eat them. (Sometimes, some of the birds, particularly when they are stressed or traumatised from what they have been through, and because they are used to naturally only being fed by their mother, will take a while to come round to eating what we give them)
Soaking them for an hour after pouring boiling water on them, re-hydrates them. Alternatively, put them in warm water, leave overnight. It softens them sufficiently for use.
Mixing them with a little catfood, and egg yolk also helps.
"Leaving it up to nature to decide"
You are nature made conscious. Do the best you can which it seems like you are.
Sounds like you just got a viable solution pretty quick, yay!
You know life feeds on life. You do not kill heedlessly and avoid it when possible. You're not killing to satisfy a market or part of some unnatural meat factory. Is a mother bird committing a sin when she kills a worm to feed her young? Of course not. Neither are you. But of course you still feel bad about cutting the live mealworms in half. If you can figure out some way around it, fine, but in the end it's something you can handle if you have to. Mealworms don't have minds.
@syrphus
Every time we move, bugs are killed.
What can we really do that doesn't immerse us in that endless arriving and departing of organic entities?
Why do we only see some of the consequences of our actions within this flow, while missing so many others?
I am reminded of a monk who decided to see for himself what an abattoir looked like and promptly fainted when he entered the building. When his teacher was asked about this monks actions he said, "While he would probably not have deliberately chosen to go there himself, if he had, he would have kept his eyes wide open".
As others have said...Try not to harm other beings when you can avoid it but
when life requires such harming, which it actually does with every single moment of our existence, do so with eyes wide open.
Not just our eyes wide open, but our hearts - in realizing we are all in the same damma boat.
Thank you so much for the tips. I've looked into this more since you mentioned it and it seems many have had great success with feeding birds in this way. I will definitely try it this week, and hope that they take to it.
And thank you @David , @Cinorjer , @how and @silver for your insightful responses.
Particularly for the concept of being nature made conscious, and the story of the monk and the abattoir -- those are very helpful thoughts. I will do my best to keep my eyes and heart wide open; I agree that it is important to be aware of these happenings, even those that cannot, for the time being, be prevented, along with those which can.
Could I just say, I know, a little bluntly - You think actually being a vegan from day to day doesn't also cause some distant destruction of life?
See, even vegans profit somehow from someone - or something - else's loss.
If you were conscious, aware and cognisant of everything that 'suffers' to keep you vegan, you would go la-la insane within a day.
So you go about your daily lifestyle as conscientiously as you can, and at ground level, everything is fine and you do your bit.
Unseen, there is a more complex issue at hand....
So while I completely applaud your attitude in this scenario, one has to wonder just how much everything else is affected by your adhering to a Vegan edict.
Do you get my point?
Can you please expand a little on this @federica?
In what way?
The cultivation of natural fibres and foodstuffs means the eradication of certain life-forms. It stands to reason; there is nothing on this planet that doesn't have "an equal and opposite reaction" a Yin to the Yang, a minus to the plus. So even someone who lives a vegan lifestyle, for the benefit and advantage of fauna, will, inadvertently, through their desire to preserve, actually indirectly cause some destruction.
It can't be helped. it is what it is....
Oh no.....Not another thread on food again.
I have decided that every time I read something here about food choices that results in a corresponding moralistic judgement or defensiveness, I'm going to go out and kill something cute and helpless & eat it.
How much weight and moral decrepitude I amass is now totally up to you guys
It's not about food. It's about the unseen associated problems of being vegan.
@federica , I do understand that my existence has and still does depend on destruction and loss of other life regardless of what I eat. From the countless microorganisms destroyed by my own body, to the plants that I eat, any insects or animals that may have been harmed through the cultivation of that food, etc. So I don't think that I am better than anyone else for it.
It is a choice that I do believe overall reduces the harm I cause, but I know it doesn't eliminate it. I realise also that I am lucky to be in the position where I can make that choice and survive and be well; that many simply have to for survival.
If I could know and feel it all at once without feeling and knowing all the counterbalance simultaneously, it probably would drive me insane. There have been times that I was very consumed by the fact that I couldn't possibly live in a completely harmless way. Less so now. I don't think it's helpful to be utterly consumed by it, but clearly, neither is it to forget or try to ignore it.
I mentioned veganism in the OP because I felt it mildly relevant, and I really hope that didn't come across as judgement of others who do not lead the same lifestyle. I'm genuinely interested in hearing others' thoughts regardless of that.
No, I'm sure nobody took it that way.
Conversely, my comments were also not intended to be insulting, just thought-provoking, but it's obvious your thoughts have already been provoked....
Which is why, to a lesser or greater degree, we're helping you think of different ways to tackle the pertinent issue, but not to 'sweat the small stuff'.
How is buying a tin of mealworms different from killing mealworms?
How is feeding whole live mealworms to a bird different from cutting them in half before feeding?
I think you're discussing the difference between outcomes that have your participation and those that don't.
Do your best. It seems you already are
We work with a rehabber in our area. Be pure in your intention and you will be ok. It is often difficult to get critters, especially babies, to eat animals that are not moving. We have a lizard who eats meal worms and crickets, but will not eat dead/dried ones. If they don't move, he will not eat them. That is pretty common with many animals.
In any case, the outcome for the worm is the same. It is an unfortunate side effect of the natural world. In one case you are feeding the whole live worm to a bird which quickly results in the death of the worm. In the other case the worm is dying a few seconds sooner in order to make it easier to ensure the survival of the other animal. For one to survive, another must die. This happens all throughout nature. The worms purchased are destined to be fed to an animal as food one way or the other. I vote for using it as an opportunity to help another. You are only aiding the natural world in taking care of an injured animal who needs help. It is good work to do even though it is difficult. For whatever reason, some animals in the world seem to serve primarily as food for other animals. Why it's that way, who knows. It just is what it is.
This is actually a big and very powerful dilemma, yes? I think the things to remember are that, to my knowledge, a worm is not very high up on the order of sentient beings (OK, I'm hair splitting, but this is all I got), and it's a fact that some beings, such as cats, need dead beings in order to survive, unlike us. It's the bird's evolutionary hard wiring that requires this specific diet. So if you have to kill the worms in order to not kill the bird, that's just how it goes. There aren't many if any pain receptors in a worm, so I highly doubt it's in pain.
I had this dilemma in a little different way when we had cats. They require dead animals for survival, being true carnivores. As much as I didn't like it, I bought them cans of good, high quality dead animals, or they would have gotten sick and died. Sometimes we have to compromise, and not let others suffer by holding onto our own beliefs or values too rigidly. As humans, we can choose to live on a plant based diet, Sissy and Jasmine couldn't. One day I am confident science will allow the growing of flesh w/o actually needing a sentient being attached to it. At that point it's simply protein and not a being.
I forgot to add, thank you very much for posting this! It has really awakened me to how much death and suffering we are responsible for w/o giving it a nano second's thought. Most of us live our lives asleep at the wheel, and Buddhism, or any compassionate discipline, presents opportunities to rethink what we do daily out of habit and non awareness. So now I'm wondering if having the companionship of cats, which I truly love, is worth all the deaths that are required to keep them alive? While I am pampering them w/ cans of cut up dead animals, I am also contributing to the suffering of sentient beings.
It's all supply and demand. If people suddenly stopped eating dead animals, corporations and private farms would stop breeding them just for murder. So it would drastically cut down on suffering. If I buy cans of cat food, over the course of a decade that's a lot of dead animals in a can! In a pretty direct way I am part of the suffering of those dead animals. So what do I do? The cats I have had are not really that up on going out and killing their own prey. They would have starved to death if that was expected of them, or gotten very sick on a diet of lizards and such, which is about all they were capable of killing and eating on their own.
It's something to think about.
or preferably not
Death is ever present. Part of the benefits of Buddhist meditative practice is the genocide of thoughts ...
Something to think about or preferably act on
How much easier it is to be a cat or dog with no moral scruples! My dog eats butterfly's when walking out in the fields, just because he can, whereas I am alarmed by the amount of bugs I kill just driving my car. I also buy meat for him to eat, and follow a veggie diet myself, it is just the way things are and I don't worry about it,