Theos-Talk Archives (April 1996 Message tl00183)

Liesel:

>To DSArthur,
>
>Very valid argument, and very difficult to give a cut & dried solution to.
>Life isn't cut & dry. What I do with it, is I do the best I can. Since I
>believe that, among other consequences, killing and torturing animals
>creates negative karma, I'm in favor of keeping such events to a minimum in
>my personal life. I have no qualms at all with medical students cutting up a
>cadaver. That's not a living entity anymore, but a discarded body. As for
>mice, they bother the hell out of me, so I get rid of them, preferably by
>chasing them out of the house, and plugging up the hole that lets them in.
>If that doesn't work, I study the method of killing them first and try to
>choose the quickest least painful way. I'm not completely vegetarian anymore
>either. I had to make a choice of eating vegetarian cuisine by myself, or
>eating chicken & fish in the common dining room and being able to socialize.
>I think I made this choice because not socializing was a more immediate
>inconvenience, than eating the negative vibes still present in the dead
>meat, the fear that the animal felt when it got killed. Besides, I'm rapidly
>approaching that stage of life where cooking for myself will become very
>cumbersome. Someone else might have chosen differently.
>
>Liesel

I also think the same way.  It's like an environmentalist not being able to
avoid everything that contributes to pollution in the environment, even
this computer.  You just have to do as much as you can within your
lifestyle and choices.  I think you just have to show mindfulness in what
you do-e.g. whatever you're eating, realize where it's coming from and be
thankful.

As far as the mouse problem, I have one black mouse that has been in and
out of my studio for several months now.  I always sensed that there was
something else in the room and thought it was just imagination.  One day, I
was painting, when I looked down and saw mouse looking at me.  I screamed
and mouse scurried behind some boxes.  It came to the studio for the finch
seeds scattered around the cage.  Since then, I've tried several humane
methods of getting rid of it.  I made a trap with a newspaper diving board
full of seeds on it out of my silk steamer.  My hope was that the mouse
goes on the newspaper to feed and falls into the steamer.  And then I could
take it out to a far away field and release it.  No luck.  Tried bucket
held up by glue container wrapped in string that I could pull once I see
mouse under bucket going for seeds.  Mouse went for seeds, I pulled, mouse
ran away.  Sigh...Now, I have an emptied tool box with seeds in it, open,
with a string tied to the lid that I yank once mouse crawls in to grab
seed.  Unfortunately, haven't seen mouse in the last few days.  Meanwhile,
I'm going to have to put up with a tiny figure climbing behind my canvas,
and mouse poops all over the place.  I hate mouse poops.  Where is that
mouse hammer that Ann talked about?  I don't mind the mouse, just as long
as it doesn't make families.

Thoa