Ahimsa Crisis You Decide

Author(s): Sulekh C Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

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and they all end up in the same slaughterhouse. Again, wool necessarily involves suffering and death; it necessarily involves himsa. And leather is the skin of a slaughtered animal. Leather directly and necessarily involves himsa5. Second, even if, in some perfect world, dairy, eggs, wool, and leather could be produced without violence, this is not that world. These products are not available to anyone at the present time. I have had many Indian people tell me that milk could be produced without harming cows. But these people all live in Los Angeles or New York or Mumbai. And, even if dairy products could be produced without harming cows, which is not the case, these people have no access to such products today. They often say that they buy only “organic” milk. But "organic” only means that the cows are fed organic food and are not given antibiotics and growth hormones but they are still exploited, impregnated forcibly, slaughtered around 5 years of age, many times kept in small restricted areas, and their newborn calves are taken away for veal. In fact, cows involved in "organic" milk production may suffer more because farmers are not able to use antibiotics to address mastitis infections; instead, the cow is usually just taken out of production until the infection subsides. But this means that the cow has to suffer with the infection. Even the consumer of milk from the small Indian dairy cooperative cannot buy milk free of himsa. Again, some dairy may involve less himsa; some more. But all dairy involves some himsa. All wool—even the most “humanely” produced involves some himsa. And as we cannot get the skin of a dead animal without the animal being dead, all leather involves himsa. Although some leather might come from animals who were not slaughtered as part of the meat industry, such supply could, in reality, constitute a minute portion of the market.
Jainism and Veganism: Explanations That Do Not Work To their credit, most Jains accept that, as a factual matter, there is harm to animals inherent in the dairy, egg, wool, and
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The same analysis applies to silk. All silk involves intentionally inflicting suffering and death on two-sensed organisms.
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An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide