Dalai Lama says no to KFC cruelty, implying he's still a vegetarian

[Guest guest]

Dalai Lama: Tibet KFC A Fowl Idea

NEW DELHI, June 24, 2004

 

The Dalai Lama — who says he became a vegetarian

after seeing a chicken butchered — has appealed

to U.S.-based Yum! Brands, Inc. not to open a

fast-food KFC chicken outlet in his homeland of

Tibet.

 

Though most Tibetans are not vegetarian, the

Dalai Lama said in a letter to Louisville,

Ky.-based Yum! Restaurants, that his people

believe in slaughtering animals humanely, and eat

larger ones, such as yaks, so fewer animals will

die.

 

The letter, written on behalf of the Norfolk,

Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals, was made available by the pro-vegetarian

group on Thursday.

 

" It was the death of a chicken that finally

strengthened my resolve to become vegetarian, "

the Dalai Lama said in the later to David Novak,

CEO of Yum! Restaurants. " While staying in a

government house in southern India in 1965, " he

said, " My room looked directly onto the kitchens

opposite. One day, I chanced to see the slaughter

of a chicken. "

 

He said consumption of fish and chicken is rare in Tibet.

 

The Dalai Lama said it hurts him to see plucked

chickens hanging in meat shops and described how

chickens in India are kept in cages outside

restaurants, waiting without shade from the sun

or shelter from the wind until they are killed.

 

Currently, KFC operates in every Chinese province

and region except Tibet. The company's

representative in Beijing said in January it had

plans to enter Tibet, but couldn't say when.

 

The Dalai Lama is the senior spiritual leader for

Tibetan Buddhists who fled Tibet after a failed

1959 revolt against Chinese rule. He was followed

by more than 120,000 Tibetan refugees who settled

with him in the northern Indian mountain town of

Dharmsala, where Indian authorities have allowed

him to set up a government-in-exile.

 

_______________

 

Here's PETA's page -

<http://www.kfccruelty.com/dalai.html>http://www.kfccruelty.com/dalai.html -

and here's the letter:

 

June 22, 2004

 

Dear Mr. Novak,

 

On behalf of my friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

 

(PETA), I am writing to ask that KFC abandon its plan to open

 

restaurants in Tibet, because your corporation's support for cruelty

 

and mass slaughter violate Tibetan value.

 

I have been particularly concerned with the sufferings of chickens for

 

many years. It was the death of a chicken that finally strengthened my

 

resolve to become vegetarian. In 1965, I was staying at a Government

 

Guest House in south India. My room looked directly on to the

 

kitchens opposite. One day I chanced to see the slaughter of a chicken,

 

which made me decide to become a vegetarian.

 

Tibetans are not, as a rule, vegetarians, because in Tibet vegetables are

 

often scarce and meat forms a large part of the staple diet. However, it

 

was considered more ethical to eat the meat of larger animals such as

 

yaks than small ones, because fewer large animals would have to be

 

killed. For this reason, consumption of fish and chicken was rare, in

 

fact traditionally we thought of chickens only as a source of eggs, not as

 

food themselves, and even eggs were seldom eaten because they were

 

thought to dull the sharpness of mind and memory. Eating chicken

 

only really began with the arrival of the Chinese communists.

 

These days, when I see a row of plucked chickens hanging in a meat

 

shop it hurts. I find it unacceptable that violence is the basis of some of

 

our food habits. When I am driving through the towns near where I

 

live in India I see thousands of chickens in cages outside restaurants

 

ready to be killed. When I see them I feel very sad, because in the heat

 

they have no shade or relief, and in the cold they have no shelter from

 

the wind. These poor chickens are treated as if they were merely

 

vegetables.

 

In Tibet, buying animals from the butcher, thereby saving their lives,

 

and setting them free was a common practice. Many Tibetans, even in

 

exile, continue this practice where practically possible. It is therefore

 

quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting

 

against the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will

 

perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

THE DALAI LAMA

 

PETA's press release:

<http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=4601>http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp\

?id=4601

 

For more coverage see

<http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en & edition=ca & ie=ascii & q=%22Dalai+Lama%22+KFC & fil\

ter=0>http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en & edition=ca & ie=ascii & q=%22Dalai+Lama%22+KF\

C & filter=0

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