Stop animal abuse!

By actively fighting, as Buddhists, for the defense of animal rights and life, we affirm loud and clear that human rights are inseparable from those of animals. All beings, whoever they are and whatever they have done, indeed live in interdependence. This is one of the fundamental principles of this tradition. To the concept of humanism, we should therefore add that ofanimalism, although for us convinced Buddhists, the world of humans and that of animals form two distinct worlds, determined by the notion of karma, which designates the act and its consequence in this life or in a subsequent life.

The animal is a living being, sensitive, worthy of respect and benevolence, and ultimately defenseless against the greatest predator that is the human being.

Traditionally, it is taught that human rebirth is the only way to realize the way of the Buddha and to free oneself from any identification with the sufferings that we encounter. Rebirth in an animal envelope, as the Sadgatikârikâ of Dhârmika Subhûti teach us, is therefore not desirable. Nevertheless the animal is a living being, sensitive, worthy of respect and benevolence, and that most are defenseless against the greatest predator that is the human being. A Dharma practitioner cherishes, as the Metta Sutta, any living thing, and demonstrates towards it and at all times love (maitrî) and great compassion (mahâkaruna). I'Anguttara-Nikaya urges everyone to ensure that all breathing creatures, all beings, all things can live in peace. And, let's not forget that any living being can evolve from life to life since according to the Mahayana, which preaches the universality of the Buddhist message for all beings and according to what is written in the Visuddhimagga : one day, a toad, after having listened to a sermon of the Buddha and having been crushed by a listener, was immediately reborn in the world of the gods