BLEED NOT THE DUMB ANIMAL TO DEATH THUS

BLEED NOT THE DUMB ANIMAL TO DEATH THUS

Slow slaughter of animals by slitting throat and bleeding them to death in open avenues may be a religious practice but its cruelty is certainly not in keeping with even a modicum of spirituality and is utterly opposed to normal human feelings for life, leave aside animal rights in modern understanding. It ought to be weaned away now before it is done away altogether. 

Slaughtering animals thus to appease God cannot undo human sin. It rather increases it and aggravates sinful tendencies in men by making them insensitive to animal pain and, hence, callous about it. As the Buddha said to an errant king who was about to ritualistically sacrifice a kid, "If to sacrifice this kid (young of a goat) earns you spiritual merit, surely by sacrificing me, a human being higher in the order of life, you can earn far more. Hence, let the kid go and tie me to the scaffold instead." The king's heart was moved and he relented. And he was an Indian king. When will our Indian Muslims learn this lesson from history and make a like amendment to their ritualistic ways? The animals deserve it. The Muslims who suffer the sight and put up with it out of fear of God and hellfire deserve it no less. 

Awaken your discrimination. Quicken your consciousness. Deepen your love for all life. Shed superstition and amend your ways despite dictates of tradition. Let humanity prevail over archaic practices going by way of divine injunction.

Written by Sugata Bose