Dharamsala, India March 13, 2007
His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave his annual spring teachings on Shantideva’s A Guide to the Boddhisattva’s Way of Life (chodjug) along with the 3rd Dalai Lama Gyalwang Sonam Gyatso’s The Refined Gold – The Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lamrim sershoonma) from March 4 to March 13, 2007 in Dharamsala (North India). People from all around the world flocked into this small place to listen to the teachings.
Outside the Dalai Lama temple, where the Dalai Lama is holding his teachings, Tibetan Volunteers for Animals put up a stall to draw people's attention to animal cruelty with banners, selling CDs and magazines. In the Buddhist religion it is not acceptable to eat meat of any kind. Buddhists believe in reincarnation and every living being has a right to live.
However in years gone by eating meat, as a supplement to a poor nutritional diet, was accepted. These days it's not necessary anymore to eat meat for nutritional purposes. There are plenty of substitutes available but some Tibetans still eat meat out of habit, even when our religion does not allow it.
TVA works to make people aware of this through education in schools and being present at manifestations. TVA provide information about the benefits of vegetarianism and the cruelties done to animals, for the sake of the meat-eaters benefit.
TVA uses effective methods such as showing uncensored videos about animal cruelty and showing interviews with people telling their personal opinion. On 9th March, a video documentary was screened for about 1000 people. This video of 1st hand evidence of the cruel practices currently being used on animal farms and in slaughterhouses is shocking to say the least. Many sighs of disgust were heard and many people looked away from the screen because the footage was so graphic. However, it is necessary to see this footage in order to understand the truth behind our dinner tables.
Cows that are not able to walk because the are kept in tiny spaces, pigs that are thrown alive in boiled water, castrating little pigs without any antistatic, skinning animals alive for their fur and letting them die on a pile together with the others, butchering cows by slitting there throats and letting them bleed to death, kicking and beating animals to death, the list is endless.
These methods were banned a long time ago in Europe but they are shamefully still widely practiced in India and Nepal. Today TVA is trying to put a stop to these practices through education and by promoting vegetarianism. And its working. Many people commit to being vegetarian. It is only through people's refusal to eat meat that an end can be put to the senseless and cruel slaughter of animals.