Sara’s Ordeal

This is Sara and she was found breathing heavily near Kechara Saraswati Arts (KSA). Her backside is bloody and was very weak so kind Beng Kooi, Jean Ai, Fang and Martin Chow brought her to the vet. The doctors gave her blood transfusion because she only had 9.5 litters our of 44 litters! She had bled all of it out! I am not normally an animal-lover but the sight of these two pictures was enough to make me sob. I did some mantras to Tara, Medicine Buddha and offered black tea to Setrap for Sara.  

I see the reasoning behind Rinpoche's Animal Sanctuary and pray that it will arise. I am sure there are many stray dogs, cats and other animals out there suffering in similar or worse conditions with no one to help them. The very least one could do to contribute to this cause is to be vegetarian (Rinpoche explained how can we begin to help animals when we keep eating them) and I am glad to say that I have been vegetarian for many months now. Some people think it is difficult. It is initially but once you get used to it, you don't even notice that you are not having meat anymore. Well, that is from my own experience so it's not so bad. 

What made me vegetarian was not health or even Buddhist principles but having watched so many videos of animal slaughters that was posted by Rinpoche on his blog and elsewhere. Some are really graphic but it did wonders to lessen my cravings for meat. The first few times watching it, I went on vegetarian diet and it lasted for only a week. So, I didn't go cold turkey on meat but slowly weaned myself off meat like I did with cigarettes several years ago. It wasn't easy as I slipped many times but eventually managed to do it for longer periods. I think you can too if you are not vegetarian yet. 

For a full account of Sara's Ordeal, check out Rinpoche's blog at…

http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/11/dog-day-and-sara-heartbreaking.html