Jain Digest 2009 03 Vol 28 No 1

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

Page 11

Guest Articles
Ahimsa and Veganism
Gary L. Francione
Distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University School of Law - Newark
Jai Jinendra.
Dharma - non-violence is the highest religious duty. Although we talk about Ahimsa, Anekantavada, and Aparigraha, the latter two of these are subsets of Ahimsa. The doctrine of Anekantavada serves to promote social harmony and to reduce the tension and violence that arise from absolutist views of truth. The doctrine of Aparigraha recognizes that attachment to wealth and the accumulation of material things makes us more inclined to act in violent and destructive ways. So although these doctrines have aspects peculiar to them, they both have Ahimsa as a basic component.
Ahimsa, or non-violence, is the fundamental principle of Jainism. Ahimsa Paramo
To injure any living being in one's thought, speech, or action constitutes violence, or Himsa. Dravya Himsa is used to describe the actual action of injuring a sentient being, Bhäva Himsa is the intent to inflict injury. Both types of Himsa result in the accumulation of pap karma. When these two sorts of Himsa are combined - when a violent act is undertaken with a violent intention - the karmic result is the most inauspicious.
Jain Digest Winter 2009
The Jain ascetic is enjoined not to commit violence against any living being, including those with one sense (Ekendiryas) and that are immobile (Sthavar), such as plants or those organisms that have earth, water, fire, or air as bodies. But all Jains are forbidden from Himsa against all mobile beings (Trasa), whether they have two (Dwindriya), three (Trindriya), four (Chaturindriya), or five (Panchendriya) senses. The mammals, birds, and fish that humans regularly consume all belong in the highest class of those beings with five senses - a class in which humans, who are mammals, belong as well. This prohibition is not limited to what a person does directly (Krita) and extends to causing others to do Himsa (Karita) and to approving of the Himsa of others (Anumodana). This clear and broad rejection of Himsa by Jainism is the basis for virtually unanimous support among Jains for not consuming meat, poultry, fish, and eggs.
But many Jains are not vegans. They consume dairy products - milk, ghee, butter, they use dairy, wool, and silk in pooja events; they wear wool, silk, or leather products, or use items that contain animal products.
Can not being a vegan be consistent with the principle of Ahimsa?
I ask you to consider that it cannot be. All animal products - including dairy and wool - involve inflicting suffering and death on mobile, five-sensed-beings. Some forms of production are more brutal than others but under the very best of circumstances there is a great deal of suffering involved in the production of these products, and the death of animals is a necessary aspect of any industry or practice that uses animals. Animals used in dairy production are kept alive longer than "meat" animals, treated as badly if not worse, and end up in the same slaughterhouses after which humans consume their bodies. The male babies of dairy cows are sold into the veal industry and most of the females are used in the dairy industry. It is an endless cycle of exploitation, suffering, and death. There is an inextricable relationship between the meat industry and the dairy issue. There is as much suffering and death in a glass of milk as in a pound of steak. Many people still hold the idyllic concept of the dairy cow that grazes in the pasture, and is provided with good care and has a good life. If milk or other products come from such an animal, how can that be morally problematic? In the first place, no animal products come from such animals. Almost all dairy products - wherever in the world they are produced - come from animals kept in intensive conditions known as "factory farming" that involve unspeakable brutality and violence. Even those animals who are supposedly raised in "free-range" circumstances, or whose products are advertised as "organic," are raised in conditions that may be slightly less brutal than the normal factory farm, but there is still a great deal of violence, suffering, and death.
The person who keeps only one cow on her or his property must keep that cow pregnant in order for the animal to give milk and this means that there will be a steady stream of calves. In most cases, most if not all of these calves will end up on someone's table. And whenever a calf is separated from her or his mother, there is tremendous suffering from that alone. Is a glass of milk or ghee or raita worth inflicting even that suffering? The picture of the happy cow grazing in the pasture bears no relationship to reality; the process of producing animal products - bowever "bumane" it may be - involves Himsa.
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