QUESTION
Dear Venerable Robina,
N here! I hope this email finds you well.
I have been transitioning away from Buddhism, but still have lingering thoughts that are very Buddhist. One is difficulty with killing animals. I have a warehouse converted into a studio, which has gotten infested with mice over the years.
Now there are so many mice that they are coming out even in the day. I have not wanted to kill them. But the more that I let them live the more they will infest the space. I thought about getting cats, but I’m not sure they could even handle the task. I tried to use no kill traps which worked a bit, but are too expensive and ineffective to truly manage the whole population.
So now I am buying 40 snap traps and setting them around the perimeter wall and there’s still a voice in the back of my head that says killing that many mice is very bad.
My mother – who’s a Buddhist! – insists that I kill them; she’s killed fire ants and mice in the past. She said it’s mostly about whether you take joy in it or not.
I thought it was more nuanced and to be avoided at essentially all costs but there obviously is vague leeway in terms of driving vehicles etc. so I guess I’m confused on the boundaries and how the belief can coexist with modern life.
To me, if I will suffer more for killing the mice than I would for letting them live, I’d rather move to a different building – but most everyone would say that’s impractical.
What do you think I should do? What perspectives can you bring to enlighten this situation? I appreciate your help and consideration on this issue very much.
Thank you,
N
ANSWER
N – so nice to hear from you again.
It’s just wonderful that you have the heart to not kill creatures! So special.
It’s a difficult situation you’re in, for sure.
As you know, the fundamental view in Buddhism is that whatever we think and do and say is the very process that produces ourself, our future experiences, etc. As the Dalai Lama says, karma is like self-creation. In other words, we develop habits: simple.
Then, of course, everything we do and say to others also brings results for them. This is obvious.
Clearly, with killing, as far as your mice are concerned,
- They lose their life — and no one wants that;
- If you use poison to kill them, that’ll certainly cause them an incredible amount of pain and anguish, and they’ll die with so much fear;
- And because of dying with this amount of fear and anguish, it’s more than likely that they’ll get reborn in an even worse type of rebirth.
As far as you yourself are concerned,
- You’ll leave the tendency in your mind to keep killing: the habit;
- You create the cause to be killed and get sick in the future;
- You create the cause to have suffering rebirths.
A main factor in the results for yourself is your motivation. If you have no strong thought to want to harm them, the karma you create is less severe. If you enjoy harming them, that would make your action so heavy. This makes sense.
But your motivation, remember, only benefits you, not the mice! In this sense your mother’s right – but she’s not factoring in the terrible suffering for the poor mice!
Of course, it makes sense not to have the mice overrun your place.
It would take effort but I think it’d be amazing to try to get rid of them in a relatively compassionate way: try not to cause them too much harm.
A friend of mine spent weeks catching and releasing hundreds of moths that had gathered in her house, and before she’d release them she’d bless each one with a mantra. Amazing!
There are traps for catching but not killing them, right? It might take time. And then you could release them into the wild – and bless them with mantras.
There must be other approaches too: many people think this way.
Do some research!
If you do decide to kill them try to do it in the least painful way. And have mantras playing in the place so that they can hear the sound and that will bless their minds.
On the other hand, finding a new place sounds a good solution to me!
Love to you,
Robina