Fireworks, Fear and Our Fellow Beings

The West Wight Sangha is located in Totland near to the Needles which were recently voted one of the most naturally stunning UK landmarks. The Needles and their adjoining headland form one side of Alum bay, home to the Needles Pleasure Park which is shortly to commence it's season of ‘Music and Magic in the Skies’ evenings, described as a pyromusical extravaganza every Thursday night from the end of July to the end of August. In short, fireworks apparently with even more added noise.

In the past I've enjoyed these displays myself and don't want to be a killjoy about them but seeing the sheer terror they induce in our now elderly dog I dread this time of year. It used to be that there were a spate of fireworks around Bonfire Night (traditional British Catholic burning celebration) and that would be it, with the exception of the Cowes Week fireworks, until next year. Now it seems that any excuse, celebratory or just commercial, is enough to justify more explosions and more petrified animals.

The explosions caused by fireworks are known to cause some domestic pets heart problems, nausea, tremors, debilitating fears and dizziness. We all know that animals have far more sensitive hearing than us so it's not surprising that firework displays can leave pets severely stressed.

To add to the misery, Blackgang Chine (the UK's oldest amusement park) which is the other end of the Military Road from us is also having massive fireworks displays over the same period - only theirs are on Wednesday nights to spread the fear around!

But it doesn't have to be this way. The people of the town of Collecchio in the province of Parma in Italy are doing something about it. The local government has introduced new legislation forcing citizens to use silent fireworks as a way of respecting the animals and reducing the stress caused them. The fireworks are made by Setti Fireworks and produce a spectacular light show but without the deafening sounds normally associated with a firework display. They design their fireworks to fit the venue and the event that they will be used for.

I won't hold my breath waiting for the Isle of Wight Council to enact a similar regulation.

Buddhist Animal Releasing Ritual Embraces the Environment

"Release life," (fang sheng) the practice of freeing caged animals into the wild to generate good karma, is now an environmentally friendly act of kindness.

“It works better with turtles — turtles just stand there and stare at you,” Shi Benkong said as he stood near the Great Lawn in Central Park on Tuesday near several cardboard boxes containing not turtles but restless, rustling birds.

Mr. Shi and other Buddhists chanted as Chinese-speaking monks sprinkled purifying water on the boxes holding the impatient birds, which were about to be freed as part of a religious ritual known as a life-release ceremony. In such rituals, a caged animal is freed into a public place as a way of generating positive karma for the animal as well as for the person releasing it.

The act enhances one’s karma and brings hope for the next life, said Mr. Shi, a resident monk at Grace Gratitude Buddhist Temple on East Broadway in Chinatown in Manhattan.

“It’s a win-win,” he said. “The animal is freed from being murdered, and we get good karma. The animal’s gratitude comes back to us.” While obscure to many New Yorkers, the practice has attracted the attention of environmental and animal-rights advocates, who are concerned that many of the released animals — often nonnative species purchased in Asian neighbourhoods throughout New York City — pose risks to local ecosystems and to the animals themselves.

“Mercy releases are a growing problem,” says Chris Harley, an ecologist at the University of British Columbia. Alien species, including snakehead fish and sea snails (which carry a potentially dangerous parasite), have turned up in waters around Vancouver, though the good Samaritans—Buddhist or otherwise—behind those invasions remain unidentified. “It is entirely possible that Buddhist releases were responsible,” he says, but these practices “are not well documented and are completely unregulated.”

Bent on finding a solution that is regulated, Benkong realised that certified wildlife rehabilitators often let animals go—unblessed. If Buddhists could join in, they could receive fang sheng credit without throwing a wrench into local ecosystems. He placed an ad in the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society’s newsletter and found two local turtle rehabbers, Patricia Johnson and Lorri Cramer, who were willing to work with him on the idea, which he called “compassionate release.”

“When you’re dealing with cultural traditions, sometimes you can’t say, ‘You can’t do that,’ or ‘This is wrong,’ ” Johnson says. “That’s what I love about the compassionate release: It’s taking something that serves a real spiritual service for a lot of people, and redirecting it just a little.”

An End to the Purple Poppy

With Rememberance Day on Sunday the 8th and Armistice Day only a fortnight away you may have been considering also wearing a Purple Poppy this year to commemorate all of the animals killed in war. However Animal Aid, who produce the Purple Poppies, have decided NOT to continue producing them. Below is their explaination as to why they have reached this decision...................

When we launched our purple poppy initiative - to commemorate the animal victims of war - no other organisation seemed to be addressing the issue. Our aim was to make it clear that animals used in warfare are indeed victims, not heroes. They do not give their lives; their lives are taken from them.

But too often the narrative promoted by the media has been one of animals as the valiant servants of people in violent conflict. This is precisely the opposite message to that which we intended. An equivalent situation would be if animal victims of laboratory research were to be presented as brave heroes in the service of human beings - with Animal Aid's name attached to that idea. Having said that, many of our poppy sellers have worked extraordinarily hard and with great passion on this campaign.

Certainly, our message, via their work, has to a degree got through. But the dominant narrative (animal victims of war are heroes who died for us) is so deeply embedded that only a huge effort (costly in every way) can uproot it and lay down something that will benefit the animals. We considered the massive-effort option but decided that Animal Aid's finite resources are best used on other urgent, more productive campaigns. 

We are, therefore, replacing the purple poppy with a badge that will commemorate all animal victims of human exploitation. It can be worn all year round - at special events or day to day. Rest assured that we will continue to promote our victims-not-heroes message every year in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday (but without the purple poppy), and we will continue to produce our Animals: the hidden victims of war booklet and other resources.

The Grand National - a Plea

I have just received the following email from a Sangha member who recently moved to the mainland, it needs no further comment other than to say that I have also added a link in our "Useful Buddhist Sites" list to the Dharma Voices for Animals website.....

It is the time of year when I climb on my soapbox and I’m afraid I cannot apologise for it. If you are intending to bet on the Grand National or take part in a sweepstake, please please do not. More than 40 horses in the past decade alone have had fatal falls at Cheltenham and Aintree, with the National having the most. As I have recently broken a limb I was trying to imagine what it must be like for a horse who suffers the same fate. It has been forced to the limit of its endurance and suddenly finds itself immobile on the ground, uncomprehending. No kind paramedics for them just screens and still the tumultuous noise all around until the vet arrives to shoot them. Why must this happen? Purely greed and even one pound bet on this race perpetuates it. I know many of you would never bet but perhaps you know others who do and perhaps you may find an opportunity to point out this unnecessary slaughter.

It occurs to me that when we have finally used up the oil or abandoned it to save the planet, we may have to return to the horse for transport and farming and haulage and all the other things with which they have aided man for millenia.

MPs Debate End of No-Stun Slaughter for Animals - SIGN THE PETITION!

Tomorrow, February the 23rd, MPs will debate whether to end no-stun slaughter for animals. Please sign this petition before Monday to ask your MP to ban no-stun slaughter and stop this awful, widespread animal cruelty.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION  asking our MPs to show compassion and ban this cruel and totally unnecessary practise, to say that it is a requirement of some "faith tradition" is an obscenity.

Japan Told to Stop Whaling

Breaking news!!!!!

The United Nation's top court has ordered Japan to stop its annual whale hunt in the Antarctic.

"Japan shall revoke any existant authorisation, permit or licence granted in relation to Jarpa II [research programme] and refrain from granting any further permits in pursuance to the programme," the International Court of Justice's Judge Peter Tomka said.

Japan had argued that the suit brought by Australia, in May 2010, was an attempt to impose its cultural norms on Japan.

But Canberra said since 1988 Japan has slaughtered more than 10,000 whales under the programme, allegedly putting the Asian nation in breach of international conventions and its obligation to preserve marine mammals and their environment.

In its application before the world court, Australia accused Japan of failing to "observe in good faith the zero catch limit in relation to the killing of whales".

Meanwhile, here in the UK, The Tory Government was considering amending the Hunting Act, which would have made it almost impossible to enforce, signalling a return to hunting with dogs "by the back door".

However, thanks to a public outcry at the news, the Government has announced it will not now attempt to do this. Mr. Cameron in Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday 26 March said that the Government has dropped plans to amend the Hunting Act on the issue of the number of dogs that can be used in "exempt hunting".

A growing number of Conservative MPs had warned David Cameron that he risked losing the Commons vote if he pushed ahead with what they believed was an attempt to weaken the ban on hunting to woo rural voters away from Ukip.

Wear a Purple Poppy

With Armistice Day only a fortnight away you may like to consider also wearing a Purple Poppy this year to commemorate all of the animals killed in war. The poppies can be obtained from the Animal Aid website with profits going to support the charity's work.

Grand National - No Horses Killed

For the last two years we have had to report on the sad deaths of horses in the Grand National, Sport, Greed and Dead Horses in 2011 and last year More Dead Horses..........

Fortunately it appears that changes made to the racetrack following the tragic loss of life have proved successful and this year there were no fatalities.  

Aintree racecourse and the RSPCA both hailed the changes that have been made to the Grand National course. The 2013 Grand National passed without any injuries to horses or riders, and only two falls. All 40 runners also cleared the first seven fences for the first time in National history. 

"I was in tears down there," David Muir, the equine consultant to the RSPCA, "because I've never seen the Grand National run that well, where horses jump fences, even when they were tired, and continued in the race. I am over the moon that they've all got back safely because that's what it's all about, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't even know who'd won the race but I know they all got back. I counted them in."

The race was watched by over 9 million people and over £150 million were bet on it.

So all we need to now is for all the other courses to make the same compassionate effort for the horses safety and well-being.

More Animals Experimented on.

The latest figures released by the Home Office in its annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals report show the number of animal experiments performed in the UK are at the highest they’ve been in 25 years, with a rise of 68,100 procedures in the last year alone.

Tests involving cats went up 26 percent, pigs 37 percent, birds 14 percent and fish 15 percent. Testing of rats was down by 11 percent, guinea pigs by 16 percent and dogs by 21 percent. The number of experiments being done on primates also declined.

According to the Home Office, more than 3.79 million experiments were started in 2011. In 1987, 3.5 million experiments were reported. The increase is at odds with government promises to reduce the overall number of animals used in research.

Happy Earth Day!

For those of you who don't already now today is Earth Day, your chance to be mindful of the planet that we share with countless other beings.

More Dead Horses...................

The deaths of two horses at Saturday's Grand Nation once again highlight the amount of suffering the horses have to endure.

"Sprawled on the ground, limbs tangled, necks wrenched at agonising angles, the photographs of the fallen horses at Saturday’s Grand National were painful even to look at. Yet millions take pleasure in this cruel spectacle." Emma Milne, the Mail online

If this isn't shocking enough the situation in the U.S. is even worst on average, 24 horses die each week at racetracks across America.

In one 13-day stretch of racing in 2010 at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in New Mexico, nine horses died racing, five were hauled away in ambulances and two jockeys were hospitalised, one in critical condition. 

“It’s hard to justify how many horses we go through,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, the equine medical director for the California Racing Board. “In humans you never see someone snap their leg off running in the Olympics. But you see it in horse racing.”

Yet it's not only the horses that suffer in this "sport"................

More Horses Die for Entertainment (and Money)

The Cheltenham Festival is in full swing and a jolly time is being had by all except, unfortunately, the horses five of whom have been killed already this year.

This story from the Guardian.........

The RSPCA has described itself as "very concerned and upset" by the deaths of five racehorses during the first two days of the Cheltenham Festival. In a statement issued on Thursday morning, its equine consultant, David Muir, said the deaths showed "the unacceptable face of horse racing", while another RSPCA spokesman expressed continuing concern about whip use by jockeys.

"Any death on any racecourse simply cannot be justified," Muir said.