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A LECTURE ON AHIMSA
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hares and cats are killed for the sake of their furs; snakes, squirrels and lizards are killed for the sake of their skins which are used for making belts, money-purses and fountainpen holders; young one's of crocodiles are killed and their heads stuffed and used as pin-cushions; chameleons, ichneumons, and the like and many beautiful birds are killed, stuffed with cotton and placed in glass cases as objects of beauty. Is this a sign of the new civilization? All the necessary things required for the comfortable and decent living of man can be had in plenty from the vegetable kingdom without killing the innocent, useful and beautiful animals and birds.
(4) Killing for the sake of scientific research. It is impossible to imagine the number of animals and birds that are tortured to death everyday for the purpose of medical research. Let me tell you how many lives are killed in one laboratory alone. The Morning Leader of Feb. 17, 1912 says:
"At the Pasteur Institute a scarcity of guinea-pigs has almost paralysed certain branches of research since last June. Every year at least 20,000 guinea-pigs are sacrificed to the insatiable thirst for new scientific knowledge on the part of the scientists at the Pasteur Institute.
More than 20,000 mice, 15,000 rabbits, 10,000 rats, 500 monkeys of all descriptions and sizes, 400 dogs, 400 to 500 chickens, the same number of pigeons, a hundred cats, 50 goats, a hundred sheep, a hundred horses, a score of geese, and about fifty pigs-in all some 50,000 animals-are sacrificed yearly on the altar of science at the Pasteur Institute."
We cannot conceive the number of animals vivisected and killed in all other laboratories where vivisection is carried on.
After all, what is the result? Are we the better in any way. No. Statistics show that in all countries the average age of man is decreasing from century to century and every decade brings us curious and deadly diseases.
(5) Offering animal sacrifices to deities. This practice is born out of superstition and ignorance of religious truth. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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