{"id":54003,"date":"2016-04-23T15:32:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T22:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=54003"},"modified":"2016-04-23T15:32:12","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T22:32:12","slug":"dharma-voices-for-animals-colombosri-lanka-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/04\/23\/dharma-voices-for-animals-colombosri-lanka-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Dharma Voices for Animals (Colombo,Sri Lanka Chapter)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senaka Weeraratna\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Aims and Objectives<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Animal Rights movement is destined to usher in the next great social revolution in the world. It is no longer a fringe movement. There is a gradual progression throughout history towards recognizing the rights of others. It started with the emancipation of slaves, women, children in that order. It is an unstoppable march.<\/p>\n

Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA) is an international movement of Buddhist practitioners and like-minded people who have come together to engage in advocacy to uphold the rights of animals to live in freedom. It is a non-profit organization for spreading the Buddha\u2019s teachings of Ahimsa (non \u2013 violence) to all sentient beings. Animals cannot speak our language and tell us about the suffering they endure when they are ill treated and harassed, forced to breed in inhumane conditions inside farms for our profit, slaughtered for our consumption, imprisoned for our amusement and experimented on for our vanity. We shall be the voice for the voiceless and call for an end to suffering of all animals through unrelenting advocacy and practice.<\/p>\n

Aims and Objectives <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Aims and Objectives of DVA (Colombo, SL Chapter) which was officially launched on October 25, 2015 are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. To become a voice for animals.<\/li>\n
  2. To establish a compassionate society which obliges every resident in the country to show kindness and compassion to all living beings.<\/li>\n
  3. To campaign for the introduction of serious, rational consideration of animal welfare into politics. For example, election manifestos and policy making.<\/li>\n
  4. To recognize Ahimsa as a guiding principle in all activities of the State.<\/li>\n
  5. To reform education at all levels, i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary aimed at providing a humanitarian education that would raise awareness and develop consciousness on animal welfare and \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 animal protection in school children and undergraduates.<\/li>\n
  6. To introduce the subject of Animal Law into legal studies at high school and legal education at tertiary level.<\/li>\n
  7. To build an animal friendly cultural heritage and re-connect to our former heritage based on our traditional religious and cultural values.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In addition, DVA (Colombo, SL Chapter) also intends to engage in public campaigns as follows:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Lobby for the enactment of the Animal Welfare Bill.<\/li>\n
    2. To call for greater sensitivity towards the rights of Vegetarians and Vegans in food production and food catering at public places.<\/li>\n
    3. Slaughter of animals must be subject to Government Regulation and monitored to prevent cruelty and torture of animals prior to and at time of slaughter.<\/li>\n
    4. Phase out Zoos \u2013 Bhutan model.<\/li>\n
    5. Ban the export of live animals for slaughter and export of flesh foods from Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n
    6. Promote plant based alternatives to meat consumption.<\/li>\n
    7. End the use of animals in entertainment and sport.<\/li>\n
    8. Phase out animal experimentation with binding targets for reduction combined with proper funding and support for alternatives.<\/li>\n
    9. Clear labeling of all products with information which allows consumers to make informed choices in line with their own principles on the environment, health, animal welfare and the social \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 circumstances in which a product is produced.<\/li>\n
    10. Strive to establish a Compassionate Society<\/strong> in Sri Lanka embracing all sentient beings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Please join our page for updates on our work here as well as to find out how you can contribute towards ending the suffering of non \u2013 human sentient beings around the world.<\/p>\n

      http:\/\/dharmavoicesforanimals.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

      Facebook<\/p>\n

      https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dharmavoicesforanimalscolombosrilankachapter\/?ref=hl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Senaka Weeraratna\u00a0 Aims and Objectives The Animal Rights movement is destined to usher in the next great social revolution in the world. It is no longer a fringe movement. There is a gradual progression throughout history towards recognizing the rights of others. It started with the emancipation of slaves, women, children in that order. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54003","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=54003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}