Caring About Animal Welfare and Allowing All Beings to Coexist Harmoniously

Positive Improvements on the Planet

Caring About Animal Welfare
and Allowing All Beings to
Coexist Harmoniously

By a fellow initiate in Mainland China (Originally in Chinese)

A few years ago in Japan, I and other fellow initiates from the local Center went to visit Master in Her small cabin, upon unexpectedly receiving Her permission. It was the first time that I had a chance to stay so close to Master and felt extremely happy. However, what Master talked about for a long time was a dog in a Center who was abandoned because of complaints from a neighbor. She was very sad and shed tears, saying that She was very concerned about the dog’s situation, and told us what true love was. That was shortly after my initiation. I wondered that it was not easy for us to see Master, that we came from far away, but all Master spoke about was concerning a dog. Of course, now I feel sorry for my thoughts at the time. I have realized that human beings and animals are totally equal and especially that our merciful Master is one with all beings and feels their sufferings as Her own.

Entering the Golden Age, more and more people have started to care about animal welfare and living conditions, taking actions to try to have an environment in which all beings harmoniously coexist. This is a very encouraging phenomenon.

In Singapore, people are very concerned about the treatment of circus animals. When circus animals travel for tour performance, they are encaged for a long time during transportation and don’t receive enough basic care. They may even be mistreated by their trainers. Therefore, for the public safety and the health of the animals, the Singapore government has banned wild animal entertainment and also decided not to allow circus troupes to enter the country. Some other countries, including Finland, Sweden and Israel, have also enacted similar laws or legislation.

In mainland China, the government and the public have paid more and more attention to animal welfare. In May of Golden Year 1 (2004), the City of Beijing released a draft of the Beijing Animal Hygiene Regulation on its official website. This is the first attempt by the city to make a regulation for animal welfare protection. Although most of the content about animal welfare did not pass the final legislation, many people praised the government for its concern about animal welfare, and the calls from the public to establish animal protection laws have never stopped.

In March Golden Year 2 (2005), a conference was held by the China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Chinese Wild Animal Zoo Association under the State Forestry Administration. More than twenty wild animal zoos passed and signed the National Undertaking on Ensuring Animal Welfare in Wild Animal Zoos. Although the undertaking still needs to be fully carried out, many zoos have already taken measures for the well-being of their animals.

This year, the Shanghai Zoo committed to a complete ban of commercial animal shows and claimed that they would expand their free scientific exhibitions about animal protection and knowledge about animals. Meanwhile, the Zoo has been actively improving its animals’ living environment and providing ecological animal cages which imitate the wild environment. The goal is to make the Zoo a garden for the animals to feel like they are living in their natural “home.” Currently, sixty percent of the cages in the Shanghai Zoo have been remodeled into an ecological style, which have water, wild grass, trees and stones.

We can see from the changes in the recent years that due to the spiritual elevation of human beings, our compassion has expanded and become more identical to the ideal of love and protection of all sentient beings.