Selling an animal to butcher will break first precept?

score:3

Accepted answer

With regard to precepts, one should not kill or encourage others to kill. If one is supplying animals to a slaughterhouse one is encouraging others to kill the animal though one is not participating in the act. So this breaks the present.

The conditions for killing are:

i) The being must be alive.

ii) There must be knowledge that it is a living being.

iii) There must be intention to cause its death.

iv) Action must be taken to cause its death

v) Death must result from such action.

If all these conditions are fulfilled, then the precept has been broken.

FIVE PRECEPTS (PACASILA)

When one is trading in livestock, the animals are alive and one knows the animals are indeed alive. One knows the fate of animals sold to the saluted house. Knowing that if one giving an animal for slaughter, by the act of giving one is condemning the animal to its ultimate fate. By doing so one seals the fate of the animal. In the slaughterhouse, the animals are ultimately killed.

Also, Right Livelihood component of the Noble 8 Fold Path says one should avoid 5 trades:

A lay follower should not engage in 5 types of trades. Which five?

(1) Trading in weapons sattha vaṇijjā,

(2) Trading in humans satta vaṇijjā,

(3) Trading in meat maṁsa vaṇijjā,

(4) Trading in intoxicants majja vaṇijjā, and

(5) Trading in poisons visa vaṇijjā.

I guess trading in livestock may be classified under trading in meat as ultimately this is what happens when you sell animals to a slaughterhouse.

One can accept “available meat” (pavatta,maṁsa) which is per killed not specifically with oneself in mind

Upvote:0

Farming is good. Profiting from suffering is bad. Precepts aren't spelled out as black and white hellfire and brimstone. They're a range of spectrums that creates dharma. Killing and abuse is unavoidable. Think of the bacteria in your body you take medicine for or the occasions when a bug gets undertoe. These aren't valued the same way murder is or telling someone to murder for you. I don't recommend the production of beef for meat because of how much it creates waste for the earth. Even if you have happy cows you love very much. If you learn of your in and out flow of evils It's a good sign your making a great progress. I'd consider contemplating what you're doing and why before doing anything extreme. Consider the Koan of the farmer's cattle.

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