Dr. Sulekh Chand Jain
As a matter of compassion, Jains in India have opened many animal shelters called Panjrapoles, not only for cows but also for other animals. This is a very noble and laudable act. Many Jiv Daya committees and Jain organizations raise funds just for that purpose, especially during Paryushana Parvas and festivals. I know many Jains in North America who send their donations to India to aid this particular cause. Some Jains in India as well as in North America provide bird feed regularly to pigeons and other birds. Recently I went to a town in Haryana (India) where pigeons and other birds are fed daily by Jains.
Several years ago, I was visiting with Dr. Michael Tobias, a vegan, environmentalist, practitioner of Ahimsa and producer of one-hour video “AHIMSA, Story of Jainism,” and at his home, every day he provides bird feed in his backyard in Los Angeles. Thousands of birds come and feast. It makes sense that those of us concerned with the welfare of all creatures would help care for small birds.
But I have also heard from many sources that the management of some of the panjrapoles is not what it should be. In some places, the whole atmosphere is unconducive to the welfare of animals, and instead of reducing the suffering, the animals actually suffer more. I am told there are many factors that contribute to this situation, including the following:
- People establish these pinjrapoles out of compassion but they don’t understand or have the expertise to manage and provide proper and timely care to birds and animals. Just opening the pinjrapole is not enough. Their proper management is just as much or even more important so that the animals are actually and properly cared for and not allowed to suffer.
- In order to save money, the management will hire a few inexperienced persons on very low wages. Often, these untrained, low-wage workers will then steal money meant for the food and water supplies for animals. Hence, the animals end up suffering for lack of enough food and water. The pinjrapole management gets what they pay for.
- Generally, there are no proper and adequate arrangements in these panjrapoles for trained veterinary medical care, veterinary doctors, proper medicines, or proper storage of medicines. If there are any medicines, generally these are out of date and unfit for use. In many cases, there are not even basic first-aid kits available and even then the caretaker is not interested in applying or lacks skills in applying and administering proper care.
- I have heard from reliable sources, including from Mrs. Maneka Gandhi (the Cabinet Minister in Narendra Modi Cabinet), that in some panjrapoles, the conditions are so bad that even the injured animals are not treated or given any medical aid on the pretext by some Jains “let the animal suffer for its own past karmas”. They ask: why should Jains become an obstacle in that process of nirjara (shedding of karmas). If this is true, then that absurd argument falls flat. Who are we to make such an excuse? Our first, foremost, and primary duty as Jains and as human beings is to reduce the pain and suffering of other creatures. Mrs. Maneka Gandhi was so upset with this argument that she questioned the same Jains why they were willing to take their near relatives even as far as New York for treatment. Why don’t they leave them alone to do their karmic nirjara?
- What about the animal shelters for the cow’s other children? In India, Jains and Hindus have opened hundreds of shelters for aged and sick cows. These are called gaushalas and I have visited quite a few of them. Here the abandoned, sick, and old cows (those beyond the milking age) are brought in from owners, farmers, and milk producers and are cared for until they die their natural deaths. Some of the cow shelters house many thousands of cows (in one place I saw 20,000 cows). At New Pavapuri, in Rajasthan run solely by Jains, I was told, 12,000 cows are normal. All these places are charitable, non-profit, institutions, run purely for service and care of the animals. I applaud this concern for the five-sensed, helpless animals. I have observed that the community - to the best of its abilities - takes care of the female cows but not its other children - the calves, bulls and oxen. It is a law of nature that cows give birth to male and female offspring in nearly equal proportion. The female offspring become cows, give milk and after the milking age the majority of them go to slaughterhouses to be killed for meat and leather. Only a very small percentage of these cows end up in these shelters.
Today, due the mechanization in agriculture and transportation of goods, the utility and use of male offspring (calves, bulls, and oxen) have disappeared and, as a result, the male calf has become an economic liability to its owner. The result is that the male offspring right after birth or shortly thereafter ends up in slaughterhouses. Unfortunately, even though I saw many shelters for the cows, I saw none for the cows’ male offspring.
I cannot understand the reason for this indifference or omission. Is saving the life of a cow more sacred than the life of a calf, bull, or ox?
Now you decide: is this behavior consistent with ahimsa?
