Book Title: Sramana 2013 07
Author(s): Ashokkumar Singh
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

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Page 61
________________ 54: śramaņa, Vol 64, No. III, July-Sept. 2013 vivisection to animal circuses to silk and more. On the second floor, Hindi movies exposing the cruelty of eating meat and inspiring visitors to live more compassionately are played periodically. I see this as the most awe-inspiring manifestation of anekāntavāda, exposing, and asking visitors to consider, a reality that is so often hidden from their daily life. In my vision, pinjrapoles and sanctuaries around the world should strive to replicate the exhibits found in the You Turn museum in their establishments and even turn their animals' enclosures into such exhibits. On signboards, words such as "collection” and “specimen" will never be used and personal histories of the individual animals in the pinjrapoles will be put forward before species histories. In addition to recognizing and celebrating the unique individualities of each animal, these personal histories will serve to show why the permanent residents in the pinjrapoles unfortunately cannot join their brethren in the wild, despite that typically being the best place for animals and the pinjrapoles utmost desire to make that happen for all their animals. This will illuminate issues such as animal experimentation, meat-eating and even the errors of former zoos. Under these contexts, humane education like that of the Berman Academy will be most effective and pinjrapoles will lighten their load of animals in need due to the public becoming more aware of how they can prevent animals from needing rescue. To better meet their animals' needs as well as make their exhibits more attractive to visitors, pinjrapoles should also strive to increase the size of their housings considerably, make them more like their animals' natural habitats and utilize enrichment programs like some zoos utilize in the United States. With fewer animals, pinjrapoles could better accomplish this task. In order to portray the most humane messages, pinjrapole dining menus, which must exist for them to truly combat zoos, should also be vegan, as building an emotional connection and humane attitude toward animals in one area and then serving their products in another area certainly portrays a mixed message. While Jains historically have been vegetarian, not vegan, several Jain leaders, most notably JAINA founder Gurudev Shri Chitrabhanu, have made the switch and asked their followers to do the same. The modern dairy industry endlessly impregnates their animals for their milk and habitually rips calves away from their mothers to sell them for slaughter. In the United States, calves are often raised in veal crates, where they are deprived of not just their mother but her milk and their own movement as well and then slaughtered at just a few weeks to a few months of age. In India, calves often become either leather or beef for export, resulting in India becoming the biggest exporter of beef in the world in 2012 and the largest exporter of leather years earlier. These deaths, as well as the high number of abandoned cows seen on the streets and in goshalas, are a direct result of the dairy industry, so serving only vegan food in these pinjrapoles could also serve the purpose of taking a stand against this industry by showing their visitors how easy and delicious, it is to be vegan. Additionally, while dining menus should be vegan, the meals that the animal inhabitants eat certainly do not have to be. Many, if not all, pinjrapoles do not accept meat-eating animals into their walls. Despite this fact, animal meat is unfortunately in no short supply. Rather than going to waste, the bodies of animals who die in the pinjrapoles and die naturally or as a result of

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