Should Humans and Animals Be Treated Equally?
Buddhism believes that compassion should be extended to all living beings, regardless of whether they are humans or animals. Given the need to respect all of life equally, how can we justify the killing animals for the safety of humans? Is it morally acceptable? This is a good question to reflect on during your practice of compassion.
If we believe that life is precious, then, not only human life, but the lives of birds and animals are also precious. Let’s imagine that if some people were to become infected with bird flu, would we decide to kill them to avoid future infection among others? Would this be considered reasonable? From the perspective of honoring the value of life, it makes no sense to protect uninfected people from infection by killing all those who are already infected. Therefore, I think from the highest perspective of honoring life, which is that all life, including the life of animals, should be treated equally—therefore, it doesn’t make any sense to take away the lives of animals to maintain the lives of humans. But from the perspective of humankind, and believing, as people normally do, that animals are a lower species of life—there might be a different viewpoint stating that animal lives are not as valuable as human lives.