Here is a sharing from a reader in Ipoh (below). It is produced verbatim with very minor editing so as to not lose the nuances and the personal feelings expressed by this reader, who is a school-teacher from Ipoh.
CNRM is a very good program, we must educate the school students to memahami dan mengaplikasi setakat mana yang mampu pada binatang jalanan atau binatang liar , I am not a very good writer, I just want to say something recently happened around my area, the owner got female pet also don’t want to spay, and got one male son, this owner let the mother dog pregnant so many times, and the puppies father is mother dog’s son, A friend got went to her house and talk to this owner please spay the mother dog, but this owner said spay your mother first, or spay you first. She refuse to spay the mother dog and food also not enough for this two dog, Depand on the jiran to give food, last time got 5 puppies, she dump behind mamak family house, the puppies cried because no food to eat, Friends took the five puppies to their shelter, I still remember because last few years I gave them empty box to put the puppies. That day, I heard this owner shout at the two puppies because the puppies cried, so terrible this person.Another person happened to doggy previous owner, is a hawker women, Doggy,Nana and Boy boy, is a one family, and they are abandoned pet dogs by this hawker, their owner dump them because the main reason they got kutu, and Boy boy got skin problem, and belum putus susu, one month plus, buang tepi longkang my place, Nana buang very far away from Ipoh town, use few month to come back to the owner, the owner buang second time, Nana came back again, third time, this owner come and see me because people around my area got mention to her the puppy is with me, and the owner said she don’t want this dog because got kutu, and I marah her, I said if you dislike animal,try not to take in animals, your dog got kutu because you are very lazy to look after them, tidak mandi mereka, For Doggy, she just left doggy in front the manggo tree, a friend pass by,saw the food container also never cuci got so many colour kulat tumbuh, the friend bawa doggy pergi shelter, and I heard from her, Doggy in the shelter don’t want to eat, very stress, until one day Doggy not feeling well, and the friend brought Doggy to see vet, after this, she brought Doggy to an empty corner house . After a few weeks, I saw Doggy still there, and I told her, let 3 of them reunion, I will put them in my place, so that they got one permanent home.-happy family. Nana and Doggy spay and neuter last year in vet clinic, and Boy Boy skin problem also rawat in same clinic. Now ok.Last week, got one woman ask my mother, that teacher is your anak? my mother say yes, and she complained to my mother,because I caught all her female cats to spay behind my place and she also said,I am very bad because I feed the stray cat just white rice,nothing inside, I told my mother, this person love to feed cats and don’t want to spay cats, and she already shift to Kg Simee to stay, why she so K Poh came back to feed the cats? and the kittens also many die because she didn’t spay cats, and the stray cats not belong to her, can spay. I am feeding Bo and Tak (two of her kittens), if only white rice feed them, their skin coat sure not nice. Actually I mix rice with daging ayam kampung, she didn’t know. Simply condemn what I do.
One comment:
No matter how we convince, coax or appeal to caregivers or pet-owners to get their animals neutered, there will be those who simply refuse to do it. Reasons cited are usually of a religious nature or due to a cultural belief that “we must not interfere with Nature”. I have even heard reasons like, “I don’t want to get my dog neutered because next time, I might be born impotent. Karma.” I tell them that if they get an animal neutered with good intentions (for the good of the animal), they cannot possibly be “punished” in their next life.
First, karma does not work in such ways. Second, if only karma worked as simply as tit-for-tat (“I hit you with a slipper this life, you hit me with a similar slipper next life.”), we can make predictions and earn big money in doing that already! So no, karma doesn’t work in such simple ways, folks, but what we DO know is that “Doing good is rewarded with good” – that much, I am convinced is true. And here is the good news – karma doesn’t necessarily have to ripen in our next life. It can ripen this life too, but let’s not do good simply because we want something good in return – that’s not doing good, that’s barter-trading. That’s greed.
Now, getting an animal neutered IS doing the animal a lot of good. At least, our intentions are good. We have no intentions at all to harm the animal. So how can it result in us being born impotent in our next life? Right?
Doing good is not about collecting brownie points or expecting to be rewarded.
Doing good, is simply, the right thing to do!
Comments
7 responses to “A sharing of mixed feelings”
Take my neighbour as an example. 7 adult dogs and 2 definitely female because 1 of them gave birth to 3 pups a few months ago. A few days ago, another female had 1 pup. I don’t even know why she has so many dogs who make a lot of noise day and night when all she does is give them food. She doesn’t come out to look at them other than to clean the area in the morning and someone feeds them rice at night. The reason why the one who gave birth to 1 pup a few days ago is because that dog is tied up next to a male dog almost 24-7 and since they are so near each other, they mate (I actually saw them mating a few weeks ago and my neighbour was home that day and either didn’t care or I don’t know what). I knew then that the dog population next door would increase soon. Thanks to her, my opposite neighbour blamed my dogs for the noise last year when it was largely contributed by the dogs next door. I really don’t understand why people hoard dogs when they spend so little time with them and don’t spay! 3 of the little adult dogs are kept in a cage almost all day. She lets them out into a s small enclosed area twice a day for like less than half an hour each time. The one who gave birth a few days ago is in a tiny area with the pup. It’s ridiculous!
When I was much younger we had an unspayed female dog in our house. My father was more of the old type of thinking and said since the dog doesn’t go out of the garden, no need to spay.
Needless to say, we had the male dogs in our neighborhood dig their way under the fence into our garden one night and a litter of 6 puppies shortly after. It was probably more costly and troublesome to feed 7 dogs and get 6 puppies vaccinated and adopted then it would have been to get one dog spayed. Doggy has since been spayed and is not any sadder/fatter/less lively for it. Unless for some reason you intend to breed your pet (which I am against but all are entitled to rheir opinion here) please take the time to spay your pets, even if its a male.
“I hit you with a slipper this life, you hit me with a similar slipper next life” – haha! Reading this line made me laugh.
On a serious note, yes, I’ve met people who are aghast that I’ve spayed/neutered my cats. It all boils down to being responsible and informed pet owners.
Totally agree on having good intentions when we neuter/spay our pets or community animals. It’s ultimately our decision on ensuring the well-being and health by neutering/spaying animals.
I’d say – ignore those naysayers and do what we feel is right for our pets and community animals.
I have been thinking like this about karma and neutering for Buddhists who are against it. The Buddha always praised living a clean healthy simple life, and if possible be a celibate monk or nun. Animals are subject to strong instincts and they cannot be celibate due to their nature and circumstances. By neutering them, one is offering the animals FREEDOM from their uncontrollable sexual urges and giving them the chance to have clean healthy and simpler lives. Animals are tied to closely to this basic need, so by neutering, you are not taking away anything, but freeing them from uncontrollable urges, pain, worry and diseases. A life that is not controlled by sex is a life that is more free and happy. This is why the Buddha advised people to be monks or nuns whenever possible.
True, true…but the very people who are against neutering are normally not able to appreciate this aspect of being free from sexual urges!
True, true too!
another reason I can give is, Buddha was not born in our life time. Our present society is very sick. Even compared with the time when I was a child 62 years ago. People seems to become so materialistic and self-centered, there is nothing left for another living thing. Whenever I am in Malaysia, it is a torture for me to go out and eat. There would be so much food on the table, and yet almost none would be willing to share a little with a tiny cat, or a skinny, pregnant dog standing near-by. OR mother watching their kids kicking tiny, little cat with NOT a single word of ‘teaching’ the child — his, her action is wrong … Perhaps I am too perfect when it comes to animals.
Many mistaken me as an animal lover that’s why I have so many cats. NO. I am not an animal lover. I have so many cats, because these are not cats, these are LIVES. And it is because WE human beings, that’s why there are so many of them.
My youngest sister lives in Kamunting. Acrossed the street there is now only a small patch of ‘jungle’ left. Guessed what I saw when I was there about 2 years ago? Closed to a 100, may be even more, monkeys … little ones, big ones … all were digging for food in and around the garbage dump (YES .. people just dumped their garbage there because garbage collectors did not turn up sometime ) … NOW the main question we want to ask is, why the monkeys are out to look for food? THE MAIN ANSWER IS … we human beings took away their jungle. One point in time, the monkeys do not have to come out to look for food, they survive happily in the jungles with fresh fruits at their door-steps. WHAT DID WE HUMAN DO .. MONEY … developers want more and more money … they come with more and more plans for bigger and bigger houses that take up bigger and bigger pices of land … SO … we HUMAN started taking more and more land from the jungle where the monkeys used to live …
NOW .. I am sure one of these days this would happen .. the people complain loud enough, another election comes, and perhaps the politicians want to show … YES, we can … and then a plan would be drawn … and the poor monkeys would be MURDERED …
During Buddha’s time, perhaps there were no pet-breeders for pure-bred? Perhaps there were no developers?
Our society is so sick.
It is a crime to kill, but I think our crime is even BIGGER, IF we do not help and SAVE a LIFE. And I have never stopped saying to any buddist that would not lift a finger to save a cat or a dog. And Perhaps monkeys one of these days.