JAINA Convention 1993 07 Pittusburgh

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

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Baltimore, MD 21203
Vegetarian Resource Group
P.O. Box 1463 Baltimore, MD 21203
The Humane Society of the U.S.
2100 L. Street, NW Washington, DC 20037
Farm Animal Reform Movement
P.O. Box 70123 Washington DC 20088
ture, but even more importantly it enforces the western notion that man should be eating animals. If the Jains, held up to their convictions, this would provide strength for others, providing hope for ending the abuses to animals on today's "factory farms."
Probably every person (except for out native Americans), who has arrived on our shores knows how strong the pressure is to be like everyone else, and how, at times, we ate ashamed of our parents' accents, clothing, philosophy or customs that seem to be unlike everyone else's.
This is sad enough when we are embarrassed about the way they cut their hair, or pronounce certain words, but when this shame refers to their com- passion for animals, it is unthinkable.
What conceivable hope do we have for animals if followers of Jainism, the world's foremost religion of compassion for all, can be conditioned to accept our philosophy that it's okay to cause pain to animals if it amuses us?
What can Jains do? You can stick to, and be proud of, your cultural roots which mandate the protection of our planet and the others with whom we share it. You can use your voices and pens to speak out against the suffering of others. Jains are not alone here. There are hundreds of thousands of animal rights and animal protection people that belong to groups so that their voices will show a unified strength toward ending the daily atrocities. We need your voices too, in order to succeed in our quest for animal protection.
We animal rights people are not alone either. We now have, in the United States, an increasing number of Jains, and children being born here to also help us in our quest for animal protection. But, we can't do it without you. Let's work together to end experiments like those whose sole end function might be seeing how much pain a mother animal will withstand to get to her starving young, or how long mon
keys can exist immobilized in retraining chairs before they just give up and die. Let's work to use our consumer dollars to purchase from companies that safety test their household products, cosmetics, and automobiles without blinding and eating the skin off of animals. The pen is said to be mightier than the sword, so we all need to write letters together to those who have the capacity to end the exploitation of animals that causes such needless suffering.
Perhaps we feel particularly close to the Jains because one of us shares your name (what's one vowel between friends), and the other one of us is married to "a Jain." Or, maybe it's due to our good friends Ravi and Sulekh (President of Jaina) Jain, who have had such a profound affect on our lives. We do know that we hope each and every one of you will consider joining us in the animal protection movement, and to seek out information on how lifestyle changes can save lives. There are two questions that have often been posed: "If not now, when? If not you, who?"
If there is any hope for alleviating the horrendous suffering for animals, we must all act together. Each day that we wait, more animals are tortured. Let us hope that by next year's Jain conference, or perhaps by the one after that, that the word "ahimsa" is practiced by every American
Unfortunately, some of the groups that refer to wildlife that purport to be in favor of animal protection, are just fancy names for hunting-support groups. Here are a few of the wonderful animal protection groups that, hopefully, will be of interest:
A BROKEN HEART
A broken heart is a lonely heart,
Just waiting to be mend, It's a heart that has been taken
and broken at the end. And when you think it is the end
and it's going to be over, All you thoughts and spirits just
get lower and lower. You feel so sad and then shed tears, But all it comes to is some little fears.
I know that your heart
has been shattered. He broke your heart,
and it really matters. Life goes on is what they say,
You'll get through it in a way. And when you think your heart is mend,
There'll be someone new
to break it again.
Animals (PETA)
P.O. Box 31455 Washington, DC 20015
- By Tejal Turakhia, Age 15
Liverpool, New York
Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM) 5100 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 404
"When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity."
-George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) 7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION - JULY 1993
Jaip Education Interational