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Is it wrong to put an animal out of their misery?
miles
america New
in Philosophy
I have some pet chickens and earlier today one suffered a fatal injury and was laying there dieing. There was no way she could have survived or been patched up, and if I left her to die she would have spent hours just laying there twitching and clucking, so I killed her quick and almost painless. Im not sure what I did was right since all life is sacred , but im also not sure leaving her there would have been right either. Did I do the wrong thing?
6
Comments
From one zen perspective....Right?/Wrong?
Look squarely as possible at the how, when, where & why of what you did.
There, the blood & bones of your questions answer is possible in a way that a room full of armchair quarterbacks won't be able to provide. No one lives without causing the deaths of other sentient life. Minimizing life's suffering where ever possible for all sentient life is what I think a Buddhist practice is. Try to be sure that you are ending an animals suffering because it is in distress, not just because the continuing situation is distressing for you to witness.
I would be disturbed to have been in your particular position but hope I too would have personally ended the suffering of a mortally wounded animal as speedily, humanely and with as much love & equanimity as I could muster.
I’m reminded of this...
The Prophet: On eating and drinking
By Khalil Gibran
Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.
And he said:
Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.
But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship,
And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.
When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,
“By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed. For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.”
And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
“Your seeds shall live in my body,
And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,
And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons.”
And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress, say in your heart,
“I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress,
And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels.”
And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup;
And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.”
Is it right to allow primates to suffer?
Welcome to Boddhisatvas 101 ...
As a semi sentient wer-lobster and cousin cannibal cructacean carnivore, I eat 'lesser' life forms.
Increasingly we can care and do well for animals, plants and edible politicians.
Of the specifics. If able, I would have killed the chicken (and eaten your pet) 🤭
I may be evil
Be kind. You were. Job done.
One of my Tibetan teachers, one of the most gentle people have ever met, learned to drive. He lived in an English town . One day when leaving his house he ran over a hedgehog, it was in obvious great pain. So he reversed over it.
“It was the only sane thing to do” he said.
Is it right to let them suffer ?
Well said @Shoshin1
We live in samsara (a nirvana pureland for the dedicated practitioners).
We will not escape levels of karmic murder, mass slaughter of insects, eg. on vegetable crops we consume.
Hoover However, fear not. Intention and the movement towards goodwill to hedgehogs is the key.
As my dharma mother used to tell me
Be Good
Iz plan ...
It is my secular belief and understanding of tibetan Buddhism that this is a murky area. I came from aci Buddhism i am no longer aci; we will not use aci here . Most teachers in tibetan Buddhism believe that the pet you are killing could be a buddha or bodhisattva. Doing so wether they are ordinary or not is grave karma. They say it is nessecary to experience all of life even if it’s emended pain that’s part of the path. It’s my humble opinion no one should be in that much pain ie suffering with a extreme illness or just old. And some teachers i find searching this online agree.
So its a double edge sword. It’s gaining karma of killing a regular innocent life and a buddha. It will taint your practice and make you unable to move on in practice. It’s up to you like human abortion its a secular choice due to circumastances but you will pay karmaticaly for that abortion. I am no teacher i remind you. I am no student i remind you. I am not blessed with personal dream teachings that would be legit by buddhist teachers. But i can tell you i do receive static in my dreams visited by holy beings pretending to be ordinary secular education teachers. I can see through them. And from my past layship and education . My online searches ect.
I feel for you but its wrong.