NEWS, CAMPAIGNS, AND ADVOCACY

Front Lines

Tradition Gone Awry

FROM TOP: NEIL JACOBS/GETTY; EAST

The commercialization of an ancient ritual wreaks
havoc on wildlife around the world

As a child living in Taiwan, Shu-Jen
Chen was enthralled by the colorful “fangsheng” celebrations where Buddhists purchased caged animals and—in a gesture ofcompassion to all creatures—set them free.
“It was all done so cheerfully,” says
Chen. “It seemed so wonderful because wethought the animals were in pens to bekilled or eaten, and they were giving theseanimals a better life.”
But this illusion didn’t survive into
adulthood, when Chen, a campaign manager for Humane Society International,
looked below the surface of modern fangsheng ceremonies, also known as mercy
releases. What she discovered—that thepractice traumatizes and kills millions ofanimals and disrupts native ecosystems—
has Chen poised to help launch an HSI
campaign to stop the abuses.
The Buddhist tradition of mercy
release is based on the belief that freeing acaptive animal creates good karma, bringing
the person and the animal good fortune inthis life and better prospects for the next

incarnation. The custom began centuries
ago when monks spontaneously rescued animals and their actions were memorialized
in religious texts. But as early as the 16thcentury, critics in China complained thatmercy release as practiced was a corruptionof the original intent, says Wu Hung, HSI
partner and founder of the Environment
and Animal Society of Taiwan.
Today, mercy release is a multimillion
dollar enterprise, says Hung, practiced by
Buddhists around the world but bearing
only a superficial resemblance to the impromptu acts of kindness its practitioners

Animals are often packed into crates for days or weeks
before their release into an unfamiliar environment.

are emulating. Large temples purchasehundreds or thousands of wild animals
to be “freed” in a single day, and a thriving
industry has sprung up around the farming,trapping, import, and sale of the wildlife.
Birds, fish, and turtles are the most commonly used animals, but a wide variety ofspecies—native and imported—are victimsof the trade.
Of the untold millions of wild animalstrapped for mercy release ceremonies eachyear, only a fraction survive capture andtransport, when they’re commonly kept intightly packed crates for days or weeks.
Those who do survive often collapse fromexhaustion, illness, or injury soon after release, becoming easy targets for predators.
Others die after they’re set loose in inappropriate habitats; freshwater turtles may betossed into oceans, and saltwater fish may
be placed in ponds or rivers. In some cases,
says Hung, the animals’ freedom is only
temporary, as hunters wait just beyond therelease sites to recapture the weak and disoriented animals for consumption or resale.
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Front Lines
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6 allanimals

SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2009

Former puppy mill dog
Sugar Bowl has a newlife with Indiana Rep.
Linda Lawson’s granddaughter, Genavive.

A Fairy Tale Ending
Legislator Gives Second Chance to a Puppy Mill Dog
Animal lovers descended on a Mauckport, Ind., puppy mill near the Kentucky
border in early June to save 240 dogs. Among the rescue team members was someonewith an unusual resumé: six terms as a legislator in the Indiana statehouse.
Wearing a yellow Animal Rescue T-shirt, Rep. Linda Lawson helped move dogs
from their cages onto trucks that would take them to a nearby emergency shelter.
It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to alleviate animal suffering; Lawson had spent thepast year fighting against puppy mills in a different arena, pushing for legislation to makeit harder for these mass breeding facilities to operate in Indiana.
A 2007 recipient of The HSUS’s Humane State Legislator Award, Lawson has a history of effective advocacy for animal bills, and H.E.A. 1468 was no exception. She showed
pictures of puppy mill dogs on the House floor and fought hard as puppy mill interests
tried to weaken the bill. Signed into law in May, the legislation took effect July 1.
“If we had anyone other than Representative Lawson as a sponsor, this all would haveLawsonbeen dead a long time ago,” says Anne Stervolunteers
ling, Indiana state director for The HSUS.
at a raid.
Soon after the victory, Lawson got avisceral reminder of why she has worked sohard to help dogs trapped in puppy mills.
When Sterling invited her to join The
HSUS’s convoy to southern Indiana on June 2,
the legislator jumped at the chance. As sheworked, Lawson saw large groups of dogs
living in igloo-shaped plastic shelters with asingle point of entry and breeding dogs
stacked in cages kept inside the house.
One dog in particular caught her eye.

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP: LINDA LAWSON; KATHY MILANI/THE HSUS. OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ESTATE OF LILLIAN I. WILDE. FRANK LOFTUS/THE HSUS

Even when animals manage to thrive
after release, other creatures may suffer as aresult. Animals are often freed thousands ofmiles from their natural ranges, in groups
large enough to establish breeding populations. They can spread diseases to nativespecies, compete for food and territory, ormate with indigenous species, threatening
their survival. In Taiwan, where an estimated
200 million wild or captive-bred animals arereleased each year, all but two of the 51 majorrivers contain alien species, while indigenous
fish have nearly disappeared from somewaterways, including the country’s famous
Sun Moon Lake.
Despite the widespread impacts, few whoparticipate in mercy release ceremonies realizethat their kind intentions can have cruelconsequences—or that the animals they’reransoming from captivity were captured forthe sole purpose of being released. Even when
the animals flap helplessly on the ground or
float belly up in the water, people believe
they’re doing a benevolent thing, says Chen.
“There’s a Chinese saying, ‘Keep one eye openand the other eye shut,’ and that’s what they’re
doing with mercy release.”
But Chen and Hung won’t let this myopic
view persist. Using video footage and investigative reports, they’re already winning allies
within Buddhist communities. This fall, they’lllaunch a campaign to educate people about
the animal suffering and environmental
damage caused by commercialized mercy
release, and they’ll lobby government bodies
to ban the practice. The campaign will begin
in Taiwan and then expand to other countries
with large Buddhist populations, including
the U.S.
Part of the campaign’s strategy involves
redirecting the spirit of mercy release towardpractices consistent with the Buddha’s
teaching of respect for all living beings. Afterall, says Chen, with the growing numbersof animal protection and habitat preservation
organizations around the world, there’s nolack of opportunities for people to help
animals—and perhaps earn a bit of goodkarma in the process.
— Julie Falconer