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should be treated with care and kindness, and unnecessary suffering or their untimely death should be avoided.
Hunting and Trapping Animals Jains claim that hunting or trapping animals for sport or commercial reasons are to be condemned. It is immoral to take pleasure in pursuing someone else to the death, and the pleasures derived from a sport can be secured without killing animals. The commercial exploitation of wildlife assumes these animals are commodities to be utilised for human pleasure. It should be condemned, as the avoidable interests of human beings deprive these unfortunate creatures of their lives and, due to senseless acts some wildlife has become extinct or is near extinction. Sportsman and commercial hunters do not do wild animals any favours, and their argument that they are the friends of wild animals is untenable as they kill for pleasure, not for maximising the sustainable optimum of wildlife. Wildlife should be protected by the abolition of legalised hunting and trapping, and prohibiting the commerce in wild animals and their products. The fur trade, the ivory trade, commercial whaling, seal hunting, the skin and feather trade are some of the commercial reasons why humans destroy life for their own avoidable interests. One can live without any difficulty if one does not utilise animal products and one can use herbal cosmetics without being cruel to living creatures. Jains avoid buying such articles where there is a likelihood of depriving unfortunate animals of their lives. Some nations have banned hunting of the endangered species but place less importance on the value of abundant animals. All animals are equal, both the rare and the abundant and, like humans, they have a desire to live hence, Jains believe, the rights of these animals should be protected.
Animal Experiments Animals are used in research contexts, in testing new drugs, and in toxicity testing; they are also used as teaching aids in schools and colleges, where they are dissected to understand their anatomy or physiology, but many have condemned these uses of animals as unnecessary. These practices can be avoided, and the relevant knowledge can be acquired or taught by other methods, such as with computer simulation. Jains believe that to cause the untimely death of any creature is immoral.
It is estimated that, in 1988, 3.5 million animals were killed in Britain in processes, such as, food testing, alcohol, cosmetics and other products. Some of these products being tested, especially cosmetics, are hardly necessary for human life and many of the tests are repetitions of earlier experiments. The tests cause suffering and death to species such as mice, rats, guinea-pigs, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, cats, dogs, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, cattle, monkeys, birds, reptiles and fish used in laboratory trials. Jains believe these tests should be abandoned; recently more tests are being abandoned, as they cannot be justified on any rational grounds of need. Only in the case of certain types of medical research, e.g. to find a cure for cancer, there is public support for these practices. Even in genuine medical research, the results of animal experiments may not be applicable to humankind as animal experiments are unreliable as differing species react to drugs in different ways, hence animal tests cannot be applied to humans with any certainty. We have seen wonder drugs being withdrawn after successful testing on animals, as animal experiments not only fail to warn of the dangers of some drugs, but
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