Fw: Dalai Lama hits sport hunting

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2002:

 

 

Dalai Lama hits sport hunting

 

DHARAMSALA, India--Making perhaps his strongest statement

yet on behalf of animals, the Dalai Lama on March 29 reminded

Buddhists that sport hunting is contrary to the teachings of the

Buddhist religion.

The Dalai Lama had been asked to address the growth of trophy

hunting in Mongolia by Fund for Animals spiritual outreach director

Norm Phelps, who practices Tibetan Buddhism. Phelps outlined the

recent heavy investment of trophy hunting outfitters in promoting

safaris to kill argali sheep, snow leopards, Bactrian camels and

other species, many of which may not be legally hunted anywhere else.

Phelps pointed out that " An estimated 95% of the Mongolian

population of 2.5 million are Tibetan Buddhists. "

The Dalai Lama responded with an open appeal issued in his

official capacity as spiritual head of the Tibetan Buddhist religion.

" I am deeply saddened to learn that Mongolia encourages

trophy hunting of rare and endangered species for tourism, " the

Dalai Lama wrote. " We all know that taking others' lives is in

general against Buddhist principles. How can we destroy and play

with the lives of animals merely for fun, pleasure, and sports? It

is unthinkable. Tibet, as a Buddhist country, in the past had

banned hunting of animals in any form. Today there is greater

awareness worldwide for the protection of not only the environment

but also of animals, their rights, and their protection against

torture. And therefore, even in countries where there are strong

traditions of hunting, people are passing laws to ban it. A good

case in point is the recent ban on fox hunting by the Scottish

Parliament.

" I therefore appeal to all concerned in Mongolia not to

indulge in trophy hunting of rare and endangered species, " the Dalai

Lama concluded. " I make this appeal as a Buddhist because of our

respect and compassion for all living beings. "

The condemnation of sport hunting by the Dalai Lama will have

resonance with Buddhists around the world--and among other people

where the moral legitimacy of hunting is currently at issue,

especially in India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile at

Dharamsala; Nepal, the other ancient Himalayan mountain kingdom;

and the U.S. where the life of the Dalai Lama has been subject of

several popular films, many books, and celebrity press coverage for

more than 40 years.

The opposition of the Dalai Lama to sport hunting may also

cause discomfort to many well-placed Republican conservatives, who

have long embraced the Dalai Lama as a living symbol of resistance to

Communism, and frequently cite the forced annexation of Tibet in

1953 in statements of opposition to liberalizing trade and political

relations with the Chinese Communist regime.

The strength of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia despite decades

of Communist repression is still evident, but during the past 20

years the Safari Club International has probably had more access to

political decision-makers there than the Dalai Lama has ever enjoyed,

beginning with back-door entry during the Communist era.

Mongolia under Communism was mostly aligned with the former

Soviet Union. The constant presence of Soviet troops from the 1920s

on probably prevented China from annexing Mongolia as it annexed

Tibet. Until the mid-1980s, trophy hunting access was mostly

restricted to well-connected Soviet military and political figures,

and hunting was conducted at a relatively restrained level.

Mongolian trophy hunting opportunities opened to European and

North American hunters after the Soviet and Mongolian Communist

governments fell in 1990--and that brought a hunting boom. The basic

arrangements had already been developed through many years of

behind-the-scenes activity by prominent U.S. trophy hunters who were

especially anxious to kill the argali sheep they needed to qualify

for some of the most coveted awards offered by the Safari Club

International.

As Phelps explained, " The argali is the world's largest wild

sheep, whose spectacular curved horns make it a prime target. "

 

Mission to Mongolia

 

Backed by the Safari Club, Smith-sonian Institution staff

biologist Richard Mitchell in 1984 founded the American Ecological

Union to promote sport hunting in both China and Mongolia. The

Smithsonian then loaned Mitchell to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service for a year to study the endangered species status of the

argali, the snow leopard, and other rare Mongolian animals.

During that year, Mitchell arranged an argali sheep hunt in

Mongolia, presented to the Smithsonian as a research expedition.

Participants included former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton

Williams, his wife Modesta, and several friends--all of them

associates and political allies of former U.S. President George H.

Bush and current President George W. Bush, his son. Both Bushes are

life members of the Safari Club.

Mitchell, Williams, and friends killed and imported the

trophies from four argali sheep. Charged by the U.S. Fish and

Wildlife Service with violating the Endangered Species Act, Williams

got the case dropped, reportedly with help from U.S. Senators Lloyd

Bentsen (D-Texas) and Pete Wilson (R-Calif., later governor of

California), and Represent-ative Jack Fields (R-Texas).

Mitchell himself was in 1993 convicted of illegally importing

a urial sheep pelt, but was fined just $1,000, served two years on

probation, and continued to review endangered species trophy import

applications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of

Scientific Authority until June 1996. The Smithsonian Institution

reportedly spent more than $650,000 to defend Mitchell against the

charges, which were brought by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Mongolian ministry for nature and the environment became

aware by 1995 that trophy hunting pressure was already depleting

native wildlife, and in June 1995 introduced a conservation law

which banned killing snow leopards; stipulated that only 15 permits

per year would be offered to hunt the argali, at $10,000 each; and

introduced limited protection for musk oxen, antelopes, Siberian

elk, reindeer, beavers, hyenas, otters, bustards, pheasants,

swans, cranes, wild horses, Bactrian camels, and sturgeon.

Reuter correspondent Irja Halasz wrote then that although

19-day safaris to hunt snow leopards were offered to Americans at

$25,000 apiece, " pelts from the rare cats can be bought from local

hunters for as little as $25 apiece " on the streets of Ulan Bator,

the Mongolian capital.

Enforcing the Mongolian legislation proved difficult,

however, as subsequent summer droughts and harsh winters have

devastated the rural economy and increased the incentives for hunting

guides to take a bribe and look away if a hunter wants to shoot an

animal without having the proper permit.

The George W. Bush administration has meanwhile moved to

relax the restrictions on the import of argali sheep trophies.

" The Fund for Animals, along with other wildlife protection

organizations and two Mongolian scientists, filed suit against the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in April 200l to prevent the import of

sport-hunted argali trophies, and to list the argali population as

endangered throughout its entire range in Asia. That suit is

pending, " Phelps said.

 

Evangelical hunters

 

The Dalai Lama himself has struggled to maintain an

apolitical public personna, but his role as head of a

theocracy-in-exile is part of the political and philosophical

construct used by some evangelical fundamentalist Christians to

rationalize support for Israel as a Jewish theocracy, Saudi Arabia

as a quasi-Islamic theocracy, and legislation which would accord

Christianity constitutional recognition as the national religion of

the U.S.

Their argument, essentially, is that theocracy based on

regional cultural dominance is the form of government favored by God,

and that " secular humanism " which separates church from state is

contrary to Biblical commandment.

It is among evangelical fundamentalist Christian

conservatives that support for sport hunting is strongest in the

U.S., and it is from them, a sector which has long supported the

cause of Tibetan independence, that the Dalai Lama is most likely to

feel a backlash.

Among the organizations whose members the Dalai Lama might

hear from are the Christian Sportsmen's Fellowship, of Atlanta,

with 300 local affiliates across the U.S., known for selling

camouflaged pocket-sized abridged editions of the Bible, and the

Special Youth Challenge Ministries, also based in Georgia, whose

major activity seems to be taking handicapped children to shoot

animals at canned hunts. Unification Church founder Sun Mying Moon,

82, fined for exceeding the salmon fishing limit in Alaska in August

2000, might also put in a few words, as one of the staunchest

anti-Communists on the religious right.

Seventh Day Adventists, on the other hand, are advised to

practice vegetarianism, conveying an implicit injunction against

hunting, and Mormons could be reminded that both Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith and later president

Joseph F. Smith spoke against sport hunting.

Joseph Smith wrote in his History of the Church that he

" exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of

any kind unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves

from hunger. "

Joseph F. Smith wrote in Gospel Doctrine that, " I do not

believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for

food. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill

almost everything which possesses animal life. "

Fund for Animals spiritual outreach director Norm Phelps

reminded current Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

president Gordon Hinckley of those statements in an October 2001

letter asking Hinckley to end the Mormon operation of hunting ranches

in Florida and Utah.

Sport hunting--and catching fish with hooks--are also

prohibited within Judaism, to which the Mormons claim to have more

direct roots than other Christian denominations. Be that as it may,

Jewish opposition to sport hunting and fishing have rarely been

voiced in the form of a rebuke to non-Jewish hunters and fishers,

and has therefore not troubled evangelical Christian support for

Israel.

 

Hindu divide

 

The political and cultural ramifications of the Dalai Lama's

condemnation of hunting speak to similar divides in Hindu culture,

from Nepal at the northern end of the one-time Hindu subcontinent to

Karnataka in the south of India.

As among Americans of all faiths, just a small percentage of

Hindus hunt, but hunting among those who do is closely intertwined

with quasi-religious ritual--which is not, however, part of the

main body of Hindu religious teaching. The trophy hunting practices

of the Nepalese royal family appear to have been copied from Mogul

and British rulers of India, centuries ago, while the " sacrificial "

hunts of birds, jackals, snakes, foxes, and other species

conducted by mostly illiterate and only nominally Hindu " tribals " may

be a vestigial remnant of a Dravidian hunter/gatherer culture most

closely related to that of the Australian aborigines.

Historically, the Indian caste system probably developed

through a long series of invasions, through which conquered peoples

were relegated to the most menial occupations and waves of better

educated and more technologically advanced conquerors became the

middle and ruling classes. Hunting was never a common pursuit of the

middle and upper Hindu castes, especially the Brahmins, whose most

distant ancestors may have come from a split in one of the ancient

Egyptian dynasties. Although the caste system was officially

abolished in 1936, the cultural and political divides that created

it remain strong, and continue to influence hunting-related politics

in India, which typically pit Hindus against Christians and Muslims,

overlapping the perennial public conflicts over cow slaughter, and

also pit Hindus of the educated classes against the " scheduled

castes, " the poorest classes, who are the beneficiaries of

affirmative action in academic admissions and government hiring, and

are the Hindus most likely to convert to Christianity, in part

because it condones hunting.

 

Related faiths

 

The Dalai Lama is influential in India, even though barely

1% of the Indian population practices Buddhism, because much of the

Hindu majority (83%) regards Buddhism as a major branch of Hinduism,

no farther removed from the Hindu mainstream than the tribal

sacrificial hunts and the animal sacrifices of Kali-worshippers.

Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, was a Hindu prince, and Buddhism

evolved out of the same vegetarian nexus as both modern Hinduism and

Jainism, and the beliefs of the staunchly vegetarian and militantly

anti-hunting Bishnoi tribal people, who still occupy parts of the

Rajasthan desert and within the past two centuries have spread into

the southern Punjab.

Their southeastern neighbors, the Sindhi of Pakistan,

maintain pro-vegetarian and anti-hunting teachings within Islam.

(Sindhi people living within India, however, are mostly Hindu.)

Valmik Thapar, executive director of the Ranthambore

Foundation, described the Bishnoi in his 1997 book Land of the Tiger

as " the primary reason that desert wildlife still exists on the

subcontinent. The women of the community have been known to

breastfeed black buck fawns and save insect life, while many of the

men have died in their efforts to counter armed poaching gangs. "

Of special note currently is that the long delayed poaching

trial of Muslim film star Salman Khan and seven prominent

confederates including fellow film stars Saif Ali Khna, Sonali

Bindre, Tabu, and Neelam (who use only first names) has finally

reached the pre-trial deposition stage. The eight were apprehended

in October 1998 after a swift but broad-reaching Bishnoi

investigation, followed by 10 days of protest. A month later,

5,000 Bishnoi marched in Mumbai, the center of the Indian film

industry, to reinforce their demand that justice be done.

Tariq Hasan of the The Times of India on March 24 described a

case exemplifying what might have happened in the Khan case without

the Bishnoi involvement:

" In the first week of February, " Hasan wrote, " Rajesh

Nigam, a ranger of the forest department posted in the Pilibhit

Reserve Forest, was arrested and charged with 'abducting with the

intention of murder of two persons.' Inquiries by this

correspondent, however, reveal that Nigam's only crime was that a

day earlier he had detained two poachers who had killed several birds

inside the forest. These two persons somehow managed to escape from

Forest Department custody, and then using their 'influence,' " an

apparent allusion to bribery, " turned the tables on the Forest

Department staff. Rajesh was kept in jail for more than 15 days. "

 

Horse sacrifice

 

Words against hunting from the Dalai Lama may not help

against corruption, but by way of example might reinforce the

efforts of federal minister for animal welfare Maneka Gandhi to

persuade the Hindu Religious Endowment Board and other religious

authorities to issue firm directives against animal sacrifice, which

typically peaks each spring when " tribals " conduct " sacrificial

hunts " of foxes and jackals just before lambs and goat kids are born,

and fertility festivals are held in honor of local deities,

coincidental with planting.

Her efforts were supported this year by home minister

Mallikarjuna Kharge.

" Send to jail those who sacrifice animals, however

influential they might be, " Kharge told news media after opening a

March festival at Davangere in honor of the goddess Durgambika.

Animal sacrifice has been sporadically practiced at the annual

festival for at least 200 years.

This year, of 1,000 animals originally slated for sacrifice,

only one ox was killed, agreed The Deccan Herald and Sify News,

and one sheep was sacrificed later in a village ritual 10 days after

the main festival ended.

" The other 998 animals are likely to meet a less public death

at the hands of the local butchers, " Sify News remarked.

Whatever gains were made in Davangere were offset when Mrs.

Gandhi was unable to persuade chief minister of Orissa state Naveen

Patnaik to halt a March 29 horse sacrifice in Juna Padia, Orissa

state.

Reported Azizur Rahman, Calcutta correspondent for the South

China Morning Post, " The fundamentalist Hindu group Vishwa Hindu

Parishad, or World Hindu Council, organized the ceremony. About

150 priests performed the ritual, as 10,000 of their supporters

chanted in praise of the god Rama. Many Hindus believe the mythical

god Rama sacrificed 10 horses to please the creator of the universe,

and happiness returned to his kingdom. As required by the ritual,

10 white stallions in peak condition were taken on a tour of Orissa

before being slaughtered on an altar on the 10th day. The animals'

blood was collected in hundreds of earthen pots to be sprinkled on a

fire and distributed among supporters to preserve in their homes.

Before the sacrifice a purification ritual was performed in which the

horses were forced to stand in the middle of circles of fire. The

horses suffered extensive burns, " according to witnesses.

Countered one of the priests, Bishwanath Acharya, " The

horses were only burned a bit. Considering the immense luck the

sacrifice will bring to all of us, we should not be complaining over

such trifles. "

Similar horse sacrifices were apparently conducted in the

region by royalty from circa 236 BC until about 566 A.D., and were

reportedly last performed about 500 years ago. In original form,

the rituals included kings and queens symbolically mating with the

dead horses, equine expert Sharon Cregier, Ph.D., told ANIMAL

PEOPLE, and were sometimes accompanied by human sacrifice.

World Hindu Council leaders have allegedly instigated much of

the deadliest religious strife in recent Indian history, but skipped

human sacrifice--this time.

The event reportedly cost $123,000 U.S. to stage.

Patnaik stood aside, Rahman suggested, because his

political party, Biju Janata Dal, " is a member of the ruling

coalition in New Delhi, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya

Janata Party. "

But so is Mrs. Gandhi.

" Some anti-Hindu elements tried their best to stop this whole

ritual, but the god was on our side, " World Hindu Council leader

Maharshi Girisurya Swami said of her attempted intervention.

 

Cow slaughter

 

Had Mrs. Gandhi limited her efforts to preventing cow

slaughter, which has been among the most prominent activities of her

organization, People for Animals, since inception in 1984, Patnaik

and the World Hindu Council might have supported her.

Much of India rejoiced in mid-April when the Allahabad High

Court upheld a total ban on the slaughter of bovines imposed in

December 2001 by Uttar Pradesh state.

The new law closed loopholes in the 1975 Prevention of Cow

Slaughter Ordinance which allowed the slaughter of cattle for

research purposes, unproductive bullocks, and any cattle over 15

years old.

Justices M. Katju and Rakesh Tiwari and Cow Protection

Commission chair Parmanand Mittal each reportedly seized the

opportunity to lecture Muslims on the importance of respecting the

sanctity of cattle within the majority Hindu culture.

" If we permit such activities [as cow slaughter], a

situation like Gujarat may recur, " said The Times of India,

referring to riots which killed more than 800 Muslims in Ahmedabad,

after militant Muslims torched a train, killing 56 Hindus.

Mrs. Gandhi, however, has little patience with

activism that hits cruelties practiced by minorities while exempting

others. She welcomed the ban on cow slaughter--and argued that it

should extend to killing any animal.

" Preventing animal sacrifices must begin with the majority, "

she told K.S. Narayan of the Deccan Herald.

" In a country where there is widespread condemnation of

the sacrifices that take place on Bakrid, " as the Feast of Atonement

practiced by Muslims is called in India, " it is disheartening that

the number of animals sacrificed in Hindu temples per week is larger

than the number of goats killed on Bakrid, " Mrs. Gandhi elaborated

in the People for Animals handbook How To Stop Animal Sacrifices.

In her view, ethnic and cultural minorities will

feel more self-confident about abandoning their archaic rituals when

the majority no longer insists on doing similar things.

 

Nepal

 

The revival of horse sacrifice in Orissa coincided

with a series of Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party defeats

in regional elections. If the death of the horses brings any kind of

good fortune, it may be the disgusted turn of Indian voters away

from fundamentalism and xenophobic forms of nationalism. However,

when barbarism and patriotism become intertwined with religious

faith, introducing change can be difficult and dangerous--even when

a society seems to be ready to accept the transition.

Nepal may be in that situation, following the June 2001

massacre of the King, Queen, and at least seven other members of

the royal family by Crown Prince Dipendra, 29, a trophy hunter and

gun collector who went berserk after an argument at a family dinner.

Dipendra then shot himself through the head--and, by law and custom,

succeeded to the throne while comatose and connected to life support.

Clearly the traditions of Nepal are going to have to change.

The constitutional monarchy can no longer rule the nation, which was

the only Hindu theocracy. Continuing to regard the reigning king as

an incarnation of God is no longer practical, if even possible.

Obviously the king will no longer be able to personally

preside over the sacrificial slaughtering of as many as 5,000 buffalo

every five years on a lake bed at Birgung village in Baryapur

District, just north of Katmandu-- an event seen as blasphemy by

much of India.

" The entire lake gets so polluted by the blood of the cattle

that absolutely nothing can live in the water. It takes almost five

years for the lake to regenerate, by which time it is sacrifice time

again, " one witness told ANIMAL PEOPLE.

Animal sacrifice dominates the Nepalese form of Hinduism.

" Except for the Pashupathi Nath temple, " the well-placed

witness told ANIMAL PEOPLE, speaking anonymously for diplomatic

reasons, " almost every temple-- large or small--has places to

sacrifice animals. Sheep are imported by the government and sold at

a subsidized price before Dussera, the main sacrifice time in Nepal

and many parts of India, like Bengal, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh.

The sheep are weighed at the time of sale by hooking them through

their skin with a hand-held spring balance, when all that is

required is a sling to lift them up in.

" Cruelty to animals and to fellow men go on hand in hand in

Nepal, " the witness continued. " For the first time, I felt

ashamed to call myself a Hindu! In fact, I felt ashamed at calling

myself a human being. "

The source contacted ANIMAL PEOPLE not to condemn Nepal,

however, but to explain the many cultural obstacles that must be

worked around in order to introduce changes beneficial to animals in

Nepal.

We introduced the source to Lucia de Vries, a volunteer for

Friends of the Nepal SPCA in Dhobhighat, Kathmandu.

" The Nepal SPCA recently opened a clinic and office in

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, close to the airport, " de Vries said.

" Our group, Friends of the Nepal SPCA, will focus on

awareness-raising and fundraising. Much work needs to be done. The

Nepal SPCA has not so far fulfilled its objectives, and has a long

way to go before it can help abolish animal cruelty thru legal

amendments at the national level. But after the palace incident on

June 1, 2001, the culture is in a shift, " de Vries agreed, " and I

feel that slowly the moment is coming to question age-old traditions

which harm animals. " --M.C.

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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