{"id":121457,"date":"2021-12-23T16:54:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121457"},"modified":"2021-12-23T16:54:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:54:34","slug":"celebrate-christmas-on-an-eco-friendly-footing-without-killing-billions-of-defenseless-animals-and-cutting-millions-of-trees-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/23\/celebrate-christmas-on-an-eco-friendly-footing-without-killing-billions-of-defenseless-animals-and-cutting-millions-of-trees-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Christmas on an Eco \u2013 Friendly footing without killing billions of defenseless animals and cutting millions of Trees worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna Vice \u2013 President Justice for Animals and Nature<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A man\npreaches peace. He is world renown as \u2018Prince of Peace\u2019. Yet, ironically his\nbirthday anniversary is celebrated worldwide with unlimited bloodshed of\ndefenseless animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkeys,\ncattle, pigs, goats, lambs, rabbits, and bird kinds such as ducks, hens,\nroosters, fowls are all lined up and forced to lay down their precious lives\nfor human feasts on account of the \u2018Prince of Peace\u2019 – Jesus Christ.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shame\non followers of Jesus Christ. Their idol deserves better than blood shed of\ninnocent animals as a gift for his birthday anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Killing\nfor Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\nMerry Christmas for poor animals. In fact, Christmas is the worst period in the\ncalendar year for them. It is a sad reflection on humanity if the purpose of\nChristmas is seen as to give Joy for humans to feast on animal flesh, and in\ncontrast, total misery for animals to suffer and die for the sake of feeding\nhumans. Christmas is hardly a win – win religious festival vis a vis, say, for\nexample, Vesak, where no animal is forced to sacrifice its precious life to\ncelebrate a religious festival. Buddhism is a life – affirming religion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Christmas is an apt time for\nreflection on our civilizational values because it is the season where hundreds\nof thousands of innocent animals undergo extreme suffering, exploitation, and\ndeath. Millions of turkeys are slaughtered for Christmas dinner, along with\nducks, geese, pigs, lambs, and chickens. In western countries, puppies and\nkittens are given away as presents, then often neglected or discarded by new\nowners when the novelty has worn off.  Rabbits and foxes have their\nfur stripped from them to be turned into clothing and accessories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The undeclared war that is being waged everyday\nagainst countless millions of non-human animals all over the world with hardly\nany opposition from the Abrahamic religions, takes on an aggravated turn during\nthe Christmas season. These practices are deeply unsettling to anyone who\nvalues compassion and respect for the life of others. We cannot remain silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  A human\nbeing is an animal, a part of nature. But we single ourselves out from the\nrest of nature. We classify other animals and living beings as nature, as if we\nourselves are not part of it. Then we pose the question, How should I deal\nwith Nature?\u201d We should deal with nature the way we deal with ourselves. . . !\nHarming nature is harming ourselves, and vice versa.\u201d (Th\u00edch Nh\u1ea5t H\u1ea1nh )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngreatest moral challenge faced at Christmas being a religion-based festival is\nto make it slaughter – free. Violence towards innocent animals on a mass scale\nis not an ethically correct way to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of\nthe founder of a religion renowned as the \u2018Prince of Peace\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why\ndoes not the Christian Clergy give voice to the suffering of animals? Why are\nthey deaf to the screams of animals inside slaughter – houses? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nin Sri Lanka can set an example to the rest of the world by making Christmas a\nslaughter-free day. The biggest beneficiaries would be the innocent\nanimals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nremain mute in the face of mass murder of animals to celebrate Christmas makes\nthe silent crowd complicit in this horror event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extend the spirit of goodwill to animals this Christmas\nby avoiding meat altogether on Christmas Day. That will be a unique and truly\nnoble gesture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Senaka Weeraratna Vice \u2013 President Justice for Animals and Nature A man preaches peace. He is world renown as \u2018Prince of Peace\u2019. Yet, ironically his birthday anniversary is celebrated worldwide with unlimited bloodshed of defenseless animals. Turkeys, cattle, pigs, goats, lambs, rabbits, and bird kinds such as ducks, hens, roosters, fowls are all lined up […]<\/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-121457","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\/121457","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=121457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}