Saving Animal Lives

Consuming health food enables us to become more compassionate towards others, including the animals. If we value our lives, we must respect that other lives are equally valuable and important. Consuming a vegetarian diet is a way to avoid the killing of animals. Over the years, my wife, two children and I have also released fish in the river from time to time. Mosquitoes found in the net at night are caught in plastic bags and released. Every night before going to bed, we perform prayers and share merits to all living beings in the universe.

In Malaysia, releasing animals in the wild is not uncommon. In September 2009, while releasing some fish into the river with my son, we met three females who bought about 200 frogs for releasing. These frogs would have died if the purchasers were to serve them for dinner. For their good deed, I gave them four copies of my health books.

On 16 September 2007, at about 11.45 a.m., I was travelling on my 24-year-old motorcycle to buy vegetarian food for my family after disposing of some old clothes into a charity box in the nearby shopping complex. While stopping at the traffic light near Selayang Hospital, I heard a few motorcyclists in front talking loudly in Cantonese. I looked around and found a catfish lying on the busy road. It was struggling for its life. I hesitated for a few seconds. If did not save it, it was going to die in about 10 seconds when the cars on my road start moving. Immediately, I used an empty paper box on my motorcycle and placed the catfish into it. After the traffic light turned green, I took the fish to Sungai Lagong, the nearest river. It took me two minutes to reach there. The fish was released into a safe part of the river. Just to ensure that the catfish could adapt to the new environment, I waited for two minutes to wish a new beginning for the catfish. What happened then? The fish began to get acclimatise to the water. Suddenly, it raised its head above the water, just like a cobra raising its head, and looked at me for about three seconds. I smiled and waved my hand. It submerged into the water. After about 30 seconds, it raised its head above the water again and looked at me for another three seconds. It then submerged into the water again. Isn’t this amazing?

I narrated the incident to a religious teacher. She explained that it is quite normal for animals to look at the persons who save their lives. The reason being these animals want to reciprocate when opportunities arise. What ever it is, I am just trying to save lives and never expect anything in return.