{"id":116340,"date":"2021-07-20T23:58:29","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T05:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116340"},"modified":"2021-07-20T16:49:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T23:49:56","slug":"no-one-has-a-constitutional-right-to-kill-an-animal-in-sri-lanka-under-the-guise-of-freedom-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/20\/no-one-has-a-constitutional-right-to-kill-an-animal-in-sri-lanka-under-the-guise-of-freedom-of-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"No one has a Constitutional Right to kill an animal in Sri Lanka under the guise of freedom of religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

There must be a total ban on Animal Sacrifice as it hurts\nthe sentiments of a vast majority of people of this predominantly Buddhist\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one in Sri Lanka has a Constitutional Right to kill an\nanimal under the guise of freedom of religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State is the Guardian of all Animals in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is part of Buddhist Customary Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trusteeship power of the State was extended to protect\nanimals, birds and other living creatures of the land pursuant to a moving plea\nmade by Arahant Mahinda to King Devanampiyatissa in their very first encounter\nat Mihintale about 2300 years ago, in the following words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Oh! Great King, the birds of the air and the beasts\nhave an equal right to live and move about in any part of this land as thou.\nThe land belongs to the peoples and all other beings and thou art only the\nguardian of it”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddhist Customary Law in Sri Lanka was also heavily\ninfluenced by <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the Buddha’s discourse in the Cakkavatti Sihanada Sutta\n(Digha Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka) where the Buddha in spelling out the duties\nof an ideal ruler declared:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” The Cakkavatti King (Righteous King) will give protection,\nshelter and ward both to the different classes of human beings, and also to\nbirds and beasts” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emperor Asoka of India (3rd Century BC) accepted state\nresponsibility for animals and granted them protection via edicts inscribed on\nrocks all over India (the Asokan Edicts). These edicts were legal\npronouncements based on ethical teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arahant Mahinda’s declaration at Mihintale set the tone for\nthe creation of an Asokan model of benevolent state in Sri Lanka, which\nprotected animals, accepted State Responsibility for animals, and prohibited\nAnimal Sacrifice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Devanampiyatissa established the world’s first wild\nlife sanctuary in Mihintale following his acceptance of Arahant Mahinda’s life\naffirming advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senaka Weeraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna There must be a total ban on Animal Sacrifice as it hurts the sentiments of a vast majority of people of this predominantly Buddhist country. No one in Sri Lanka has a Constitutional Right to kill an animal under the guise of freedom of religion. The State is the Guardian of all Animals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senaka-weeraratna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}