Killing Yaks for Livelihood or For Greed?

Killing, for what ever cause and reason is an unjustified act. It is brutal and inhuman. Shunned by many religions, it is often considered as an anti religious!. Especially in Buddhism, even an infant is suppose to know that killing is a heinous and irredeemable sin. Therefore, it is morally not right to take a life of even a tiny being like mosquito!

But today, driven by human greed for easy money and meat, these principles have become like a myth. Killing fellow beings have become like a fashion. Long time ago, it was done in the name of religion and culture. Now it is done more in the name of livelihood and survival. Sometimes it is also done for fun, pleasure and luxury. Many innocent animals like bulls, pigs, chickens, etc are slaughtered everyday without mercy. With the recent news in KUENSEL, it gives us a feeling that animal killing has reached its height even in Bhutan. It is a shocking sensation to hear that animal atrocity is happening in the last Shangri-La!

In our recent past, we acknowledged that many animals were slaughtered across the border to meet our  rising meat demand. But soon after enforcing the Cow Slaughter Ban Bill in India, It appears to us that now our yak herders have taken their turn in slaughter house. Looking at the sheer numbers of yaks being saved by Jangsa animal saving trust, it tells us a different story all together.

Every moment I hear yaks being rescued from their heartless and senseless owners. I ask this question to myself  "Is survival in high lands that desperate?"  The immediate answer that comes to my mind is that;  living in the high land is no fun. It is an enterprise as mighty as the mountains. But survival is still not that desperate. Our king(s) and Government have in fact done a commendable job to improve their living standard. legalizing trade in cordycepts is one such landmark initiative taken by the king to improve their economic well being. Due to this, today the living condition of our yak herders, if not higher are at par with the rest. Today, we see yak herders shopping in Thimphu with packs of thousand notes! Some of them have already become a established business man! Luxury items like cars and bows etc have just become their needs. They are indeed having an economic miracle at the moment!

So where is the need for them to slaughter so many animals?

It is well known fact that those yak herders would  kill few yaks annually to sustain their family. The killings were minimal and it was mostly carried out in the confines of their household needs. No public announcements were required. But today things have changed. Yak herders of our generation now prefers mass public slaughtering! The very animals that sustained their families through thick and thins are now transported in mass from high up mountains to towns in trucks. They are soon tied and readied to be slaughtered without any  mercy! Shamelessly and with out any guilt, those herders turned-to-butchers were often heard saying that they were doing it for their survival!!!!!!!!!!!!!   What could be more cruel than this!

See the pain in his eyes

Although Jangsa animal saving trust is doing their best to save those animals, much needs to be done from our state too. Yaks are domestic animals that are fast heeding towards their extinction! With this rate of killing, there would be no more yaks in few years time (in Bhutan). Therefore, saving and protecting yak is not the responsibility of Jangsa animal saving trust alone. It is a call for us to combat animal cruelty!.

Now as a Buddhist country, if we can have a law banning tobacco, than calling for a law to combat animal cruelty is not a big ask for our state. Let us also make life better for other beings as well.