Request To Indian People From Vegetarians Of World

Author(s): Young Indian Vegetarians
Publisher: Young Indian Vegetarians

Page 47

The embrrassed Indian High Commission has issued a barrage of statements citing improved hygiene, control in catching and exports, immersing frogs in salt water! and research into improved slaughter methods to justify this cruel and disastrous trade. Whether they are killed humanely or not, the ecological damage remains, and as already stated, India has to spend more than twice the foreign exchange earned from the frogs' legs trade, on the import of highly dangerous insecticides to replace these useful insect eaters.
Why does the Government of India allow this wanton salughter to continue to provide a mere food delicacy for the affluent West and to the deteriment of its own people and country? Have those in power forgotten the teaching of Ahimsa and the retribution of Karma?
Each one of us bears a personal responsibility. It is our world and the way we act as individuals will collectively shape its future. It is for you to protest to the Government and write to the press about the cruelty of the frog trade, the increase in factory farming methods, the trade in furs, reptile skins, and live animals, and to resist the pressures of the multinational drug and chemical companies.
"Evil will triumph so long as good men do nothing".
As Mahatma Gandhi pointed out, protest must be non-violent, for if we protest against violence with violent actions we fight against ourselves.
We can contribute to violence, famine and war, or we can work for peace. If we choose the latter, the fundamental basis is a harmonious relationship with the whole Natural World. If we get the wrong it will all be wrong. It starts with personal responsibility...
"All life is one, and all its manifestations with which we have contact are climbing the ladder of evolution. The animals are our younger brothers and sisters, also on the ladder but a few rungs lower down than we are. It is an importnat part of our responsibilities to help them in their ascent, and not to retard their development by cruel exploitation of their helplessness.
What I am now saying, if people would realise it, is of very great practical importance, because failure to recognise our responsibilities towards the animal kingdom is the cause of many of the calamities which now beset the nations of the world. Nearly all of us have a deep-rooted wish for peace -peace on earth; but we shall never attain true peace the peace of love, and not the uneasy equilibrium of fear - until we recognise the place of animals in the scheme of things and treat them accordingly".
These words were spoken by my Stepfather, Lord Dowding, on 18th July 1957 as he concluded one of the 27 speeches on animal welfare he gave in the House of Lords.
England - December 1984
from David Whiting