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Resource Index | Left Brain | Right Brain | Courses | Site Directory November 2002 - An Ethical Dilemma We recently received the following query from a meditator in Toronto. We ask members to please consider her dilemma and, if appropriate, add their comments or advice. Here is her letter: I am studying buddhism and mindfulness at the moment and it is enriching my life in so many ways. I have a little situation happening in my life right now and would greatly appreciate some advice. My guppies have had babies... lots of babies... 50 babies. The fish store encouraged me to keep them as they were willing take them back upon maturity for selling purposes. Well...at the moment they have too many guppies and will only use these beautiful fish as live feed (at best). I feel terrible about handing them over when I know the fate they will suffer, but the babies are starting to get frisky and I fear I am soon going to face an overcrowding situation which wont be good for ANY of the aquatic life. Do you know of any organizations that would be willing to take these fish and ensure them a good, caring home? Or, can you offer some ethical advice from your own unique perspective. I thank you and my fishies thank you! Mindful (at times!) in Toronto Response (November 18, a New Zealand member) Why don't you write your story and send it to the local newspaper, where I'm sure much interest will ensue and new homes found! Response (November 17, from a member in Perth, Australia) Try some other fish stores? Check with environmental/catchment conservation groups and release them in a lake? If it was in West Australia, I'd say make a pond for them, but in Toronto they'd probably freeze to death. If all else fails, to prevent the aquarium getting overcrowded and everything dying, some will have to go. There may be nothing for it but to Chenrezig and take them to fish shop? Response (November 17, a Toronto member)
Response (November 16, a Toronto member)
Response (November 16, a Toronto member) Dear Friend of Guppies (FoG): Having embarked on the pathway of owning pets, this is the result. As a dog owner, I know that I am contributing to the slaughter of animals to the profit of the billion dollar pet industry in North America and to the life and love our dog brings to our family. I suggest buying a predator fish and looking to have your fish tank in some sort of prey-predator balance or returning your surplus fish to the store. Yes, this is contributing to suffering and death. However, you have unwittingly been part of the creation of the situation and now need to consciously and compassionately solve it. The guppies will eventually die anyway as your tank has limits to the amount of life it will support. Our planet has limits too, to the number of guppies and humans. In whatever you do, examining your intention, and offering your love and compassion to all involved will help you come to clarity. Response (November 15, from an Australia member) First Choice-- Donate them via the local community newspaper, or to a local nursing home or some community organisation that may like them, especially one that works with children. For example, a parenting support agency or child care centre -- as kids love to watch the energy of fish. Second choice- sell them and donate the money (to a wildlife organisation). Third choice- (only if they are an indigenous species to the local area) set them free. [Ed. note: as guppies are not indigenous to Canada, and we're heading into our winter, so the third choice is probably not a good option.] Response (November 15, a Toronto member) Is there an aquarium in the city that could use those sorts of numbers? She may try asking, schools especially nursery and elementary schools -- they sometimes keep low maintenance pets. Speak to two or three nursery/elementary schools or day cares, purchase another aquarium and offer it and the guppies as a Christmas gift to the children. One may also do the same for Seniors' Homes -- fish are so peaceful that they have a wonderful relaxing effect. Response (November 15) My reflections circle around the understanding that we live within a reality that is conditioned, and while we can taste perfection, can maybe eventually illuminate a corner of our world, we cannot expect to be "perfect". Our world is one of both light and dark, the web of life is also a web of death. Our aim as meditators is to not deny the dark but to know it, and where possible to bring light -- wisdom and compassion -- to what is dark. Knowing the dark in the case of guppies and of biological life: Our human life depends upon "death", or at least un-forming. Our bodies continually kill off invading lifeforms. Maybe we take antibiotics with the same end in mind. We cannot eat without taking life, whether it is the carrot, or the microbes that come with the carrot. If we are vegetarian, we may avoid the grosser aspects of life-taking, but to eat dairy means that male calves go to slaughter, to eat eggs means hens past their prime are slaughtered also. The Jain sect, recognizing these realities, are reported to consider ideal a diet of fruits and nuts as lifeforms that are ripe, while the highest ideal is to fast to death as a way of avoiding harm to life, and in so doing to attain spiritual perfection. So, on this continuum of "harming", where do we place our own values? Another aspect of biological reality: The reason, as I understand it, that guppies reproduce in the hundreds (thousands?), is that it's expected that few will survive. In a fish tank, we have human intervention shifting the typical guppie's karma. However, if you don't do something soon, nature will still take its course -- in overcrowded conditions, creatures suffer, whether it's eating their own kind, pollution of their water with excreta, onset of infection...(sounds like a microcosm of our planet!) If you give away the excess guppies, you are handing the issue to another person, you may save this generation, but the problem will always be there for ensuing generations. Does this mean that a conscientious meditator shouldn't keep guppies? No, my opinion is that we have always to choose life, richness, complexity. Otherwise, we are going the route that leads to fasting to death. Having guppies in our life brings delight, appreciation of the "liveliness" of life, develops compassion, and incidentally brings us the ethical conundrum of under discussion. In this case, guppies have also become the seed for growing in wisdom. A "stripped down" life of "purity" would avoid the reality of the intertwining of light and dark, would never give us these chances to develop compassion and wisdom. Reflecting on the interbeing of light and dark, of life and death, reminds me also that death is not the end of life, but the pause before another breath of being is breathed into our world, fresh and wondrous. And the darkness of passing out of life makes that much the more precious the miracle of being in life, like the black velvet that brightens the luminosity of the diamond. In this past year, I've had to deal with an infestation of scale (an insect) on a magnolia tree. I researched options, and rejected the toxic insecticide as harmful to me, to other lives, as well as not wanting to kill the insects. I settled on a dormant oil spray, as killing the eggs, and not harming much else -- so, a kind of insect birth control, or was it abortion? And of course, I prayed for the fortunate rebirth of the little beings. Whatever we do, acting with awareness is bringing light to the situation. Here is the questioner's response to all this advice: I was truly touched that so many people would take the time to respond to my query. You have each provided me with some wonderful insight. I still have not come to a conclusion as to what the end decision will be, but I am now more comfortable considering all options. I think I am most comfortable with the idea of introducing a predator fish. At least that way, I can know the outcome for the guppies and be witness to their demise if that is the case. Then I can know that they are benefiting another creature. Also, as was mentioned, since this is a situation of my own creation, passing the fish on to others may not guarantee their well being either. So, this will allow me to witness the full circle of life and death - as painful as that may be. Some may survive and some may not. This seems more in keeping with the natural balance of life. No matter what the outcome, my fish will have been loved. I will make my decision with the best intentions of my heart. Thank you all again for your input. Your objective clarity was greatly appreciated.
Many thanks to the questioner for this discussion. Resource Index | Left Brain | Right Brain | Courses | Site Directory
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