A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

The Buddhist Chief High Priest of Malaysia, along with a grassroots environmental group in that country, has warned against the Buddhist ritual of releasing caged birds. This compassionate practice is now in danger of promoting the very outcome it seeks to relieve: animal suffering.

In East Asian Buddhism and especially in China, the release of animals, particularly birds or fish, into their natural environment became an important way of demonstrating Buddhist piety. This practice is based on a passage in the Mahāyāna Sūtra of Brahma's Net, which states that "...all the beings in the six paths of existence are my parents. If I should kill and eat them, it is the same as killing my own parents. ... Since to be reborn into one existence after another is the permanent and unalterable law, we should teach people to release sentient beings."

Tibetan lamas regularly prescribe animal liberation practice for those with serious illness. Just as violent actions are believed to create the cause to experience harm and illness oneself, altruistic actions such as saving the lives of animals are said to create the cause to experience good health and long life. Prominent Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has been photographed releasing birds. 

In recent times, however, animals can be exploited instead of liberated in this ritual. Birds and other animals are being caught a few days before the ritual is to take place. Some die during capture or on the way to being sold to pet shops, where they are overcrowded in dirty cages and may be denied adequate food and water. Once purchased from the pet shops, these animals continue in confinement until the ceremony, when they are released.

Although the original intent of the ritual is to return animals to their natural environment, that rarely happens these days. Wild birds released in a city become disoriented as they try to fly away, vulnerable to predators and other hazards. Birds and other released animals find themselves in areas where they cannot find food and water. Fish may be placed in waters where they either lose out in the competition for available food, or become superdominant, to the point that they prey upon and drive to extinction other species, thus permanently altering an ecosystem. New diseases may be introduced when animals are transferred.

The Malaysian statement calls for religious organizations to educate their members about activities harmful to animals and the planet, and to urge them not to release animals into nature reserves, reservoirs, and during religious or athletic festivities. Acceptable channels for compassion can be suggested instead, such as vegetarianism, adopting companion animals from shelters instead of pet shops, supporting animal welfare/rights, and advocating humane methods of animal control.