JAINA Convention 1993 07 Pittusburgh

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 35

Animal Rights. What does it have to do with me?
Why should I get involved?
by Tom Meinhardt
Thirty years ago there were virtually no Jains in America. The western Judeo-Christian culture taught, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, that it was acceptable to use animals in any way that one saw fit. This varied from inflicting pain on animals in psychology laboratories just to watch the animals scream in pain, to immobilizing animals for their entire lives to keep their meat tender for human consumption.
Rene Descartes is thought to be the father of the school of thought that animals are not feeling, thinking beings but machines, and to be treated as such. He nailed dogs' feet to boards and cut them open with no anesthetic to illustrate the workings of their interior organs, dismissing their cries of pain as being nothing more than reflexes, not worthy of any consideration. And when white men first landed on our soil, they took pleasure in shooting buffaloes from moving trains, just for the enjoyment of target practice.
Were these people cruel to do these things to animals, or is it possible that they were just conditioned to the theory that animals lack any capacity to feel pain.
We would not flinch at someone taking a piece of lint and grinding it to bits. If animals have no more sentience than that piece of lint, and if we truly believe that their screams of pain and terror do not exist, then how can we be "cruel" when we do these things to them?
(FALSEF)
33
How do you begin to convince people that these actions, which have been thoroughly ingrained into their psyche are not correct? If there were no other way of looking at animals, the task would be insurmountable. One way, however, is to study the teachings of other cultures.
Fortunately, people who questioned the western treatment of animals could look toward the Jain culture halfway around the globe to illustrate that it is not man's inherent nature to inflict suffering on animals.
The Jains could prove that other peoples can survive with all the joys of being on earth without having to delight in the suffering of others. Their perspective on reverence for all life can have profound influence in this culture, as it has for so many years in India.
While the exploitation of animals takes on many forms, since World War II there have been two changes that have made the lives of animals in America hell of earth. The first is that the biomedical community has gained such power through our Congress, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the funding system that it is virtually impenetrable.
There is no comparable system to our current one where Congress funnels billions of dollars each year into the pockets of the animal researchers who in turn funnel legal kickbacks to Congress (via contributions from the American Medical Association, the second largest donator to Congress, superseded only by the American Rifle Association) to ensure the constant supply of funds.
Plus, the animal researchers themselves are on the Animal Care Committees, knowing, of course, that if they question an experiment of one of their colleagues, that their own research could, in turn be questioned.
The animal researchers receive these billions from Congress and they, in turn, form lobby and propaganda groups to fund those members of Congress that
will keep the funds flowing. The policy even has a term: "pork barrel." The closed door policy helps to ensure the public never finds out the truth as to what is going on behind their locked laboratory doors, and continue the horrors unabated.
The second post-war occurrence was that the chemicals introduced during the war could also be used to keep thousands of animals alive under horrendous, unnatural conditions. Animals no longer needed sunlight to be kept alive. To counteract the diseases inevitable if thousands of animals were warehoused in small buildings, they are pumped full of antibiotics on a daily basis. Untold suffering exists in these animal warehouses.
As a result of the lobbying pressure (i.e. kickbacks), our government, through the Food Act of 1985, even uses our federal tax dollars to encourage people to eat more red meat, in spite of the fact that the American diet is killing us, forcing our health care system into bankruptcy, and making it impossible for many Americans to afford any health insurance protection.
Is it pure coincidence that a large number of Jains chose during these years to migrate to the United States? Is it not possible that the only hope for the suffering animals here is that you would arrive on our shores, and show, by your example and philosophy, that no it is not acceptable to cruelly exploit animals?
When Vegetarian Times did a survey some years ago, they found that the most often reason given for being a vegetarian was that an acquaintance did not eat animals.
Just by being a vegetarian, and showing that a person can live with their convictions (and will even be healthier) and not bow to peer pressure to eat animals, you will provide this inspiration. How sad it is then to hear of some of the Jain children caving in to this peer pressure to join the crowd for a burger. This burger equivocates to direct animal tor
"My stomach is not a graveyard for dead animals."
-George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION - JULY 1993 For Private & Personal Use Only
ALBET