Merit release—procuring animals that are about to be slaughtered and releasing them back into the wild—is a tradition practiced, to different degrees, by various Buddhist groups each year. It sounds like a good – and yes, meritorious – idea, but you might want to think twice before trying it. Why?
Photo: Roberto Rodriguez
Well, as Conservation Magazine reports, hundreds of thousands of birds are caught in Asia each year just so they can be bought for merit release, putting them through the unnecessary stress of catching them just to be set free again. But there’s more. Many of these birds are infected with avian flu virus and other pathogens, and they can infect other birds, animals and people when they’re released. According to the study, published in Biological Conservation, 10 percent of the Cambodian birds the researchers tested were infected with avian influenza. “The presence of pathogenic viruses and bacteria among birds available for merit release is a concern both to wild bird populations and to humans involved in the trade,” the authors write.
Birds aren’t the only animals commonly used for merit release. Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia has an annual tradition of releasing a boatload of lobsters back into the ocean on the last day of lobster season. On June 30, a group of abbey residents and friends boarded a boat and bought about 100 lobsters from a local fisherman. After a reading of The Essence of Benefit and Joy: A Method for the Saving of Lives by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, the lobsters were released back into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
But in addition to buying lobsters directly from the fisherman, at least one Buddhist group—as well as the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals PETA)—encourages other means of releasing animals, including taking lobsters and other live seafood from grocery stores and putting them back in the ocean. But Spencer Greenwood, director of the Lobster Science Center at Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, says putting store-bought lobsters into the ocean is potentially dangerous for the crustaceans.
“To increase the likelihood that all the lobsters are going to survive, it would be better to do it in conjunction with a fisherman,” he told me. “To me that would be a more ethical way of doing it.”
Greenwood said lobsters taken from a grocery store have to be acclimated to the ocean water before being released, so the different water conditions aren’t too much of a shock to their bodies. Lobsters secrete ammonia, Greenwood said, which can be toxic to them in the wrong environment.
Greenwood said it’s important to acclimate the lobsters to the water, to ensure that they’ll survive. “If they’re not in the right type of environment, it can be dangerous to them.”
I have thought this for years. I do not think it is a good practice. It is filled with faults. Maybe the best thing would be to just go with the fishermen or lobstermen and bless them, their crews, boats and their catches. You can not stop the killing process, but you can plant the seed of the dharma on more beings that way. And there is no danger to anyone. I am a beekeeper and I bless all of my hives with the OM symbol in the Tamil language as well as a Tibetan prayer. I have a chance each year to bless millions of sentient being every season. The worker bees only live 45 days. There is a constant turnover of these female worker bees and I take good care of them while they are here and bless them.
Before the animals are released extensive prayers and mantras should be done, with many circumambulations of hundreds or thousands of holy objects. This is the main benefit for them, not simply the saving from certain death, which of course is a huge benefit to them and also the people doing the saving. We buy our lobsters directly from the fishermen before they have been out of the water that long.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche's advice on benefiting animals: http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&a…
The practice (See appendix 3): http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&a…
If you really want to benefit all sentient beings, you should be circumambulating hundreds of thousands of holy objects at every waking moment of your entire life. That is the highest form of practice. The practice you suggest is inferior and a waste of this precious human life.
Very interesting; even when we're trying to "do the right thing" it's important to do the research first. Thanks for posting.
Don't catch sentient beings in the first place………
How can you say it's not a good practice, Tony? How can freeing sentenced to death sentient beings be bad? Well, only if you do it without wisdom. Before releasing lobsters, turtles, grasshopers, earthworms, whatever, you must do a research on how to do it properly; what kind of enviroment they need, make sure they'll survive and that they won't mess up the ecosystem. Compassion must always come along with wisdom.
If animals are being purchased for release, wouldn't this just contribute to the creation of a market for the capture of these animals? It feeds itself.
It is very important to search all informations, think about all parameters and understanding how things go before interacting with nature. Most of the time, the result is a failure.
Ecosystems are very precise, specifics anything from outside unbalance, diseases appear. And an animal which already left its ecosystem, even when put back in it comes from outside.
Someone commented about contributing to the market for captured animals – many unwanted horses are sent to the kill pen where they used to be sold "by the pound" but as rescuers started buying them, the price has gone up because the people running the pens know the rescuers will pay it. The same happens when people choose to "rescue" a pet shop dog, thereby supporting puppy mills. I am not suggesting these suffering animals should be left to their fate – I don't know the answer. But it is something to think about.
Clearly, there is no way to safeguard beings from death once released. The power of mantra, as written in many commentaries far outweighs any disadvantages of any release – and in any case, would seem to be better, in my opinion than being put live into a boiling cauldron – as in the case of lobsters . . . om mani padme hum