Extreme cruelty!
Dear kind friends around the world,
In any culture, there would be sets of superstitions that a particular community would apply. I am not judging or stating there is right or wrong in people’s beliefs and superstitions, but when it involves hurting other living beings, then we should re-examine the benefits of believing in a practice that causes harm and if we can live our lives without inflicting harm.
I just came across this article about how dogs are being strung and spun in the air, as part of a ritual to ward off evil in Bulgaria. There is no connection of animal sacrifice (spinning in the air until delirium resulting in death) with warding off evil spirits. If anything it invites negative energy because a living being is being harmed. Harm attracts negative energies always. I’m sharing here in hopes that everyone who comes across this would take into action to sign this petition and call for such treatment of dogs, to be stopped. Please do read the article below and share this with your friends as much as possible.
Tsem Rinpoche
Help End This Cruelty Towards Dogs in Bulgaria!
STOP the dog spinning in Bulgaria!
It is easy to confuse tradition with torture, in Spain we know very well. But our particular “bullfighter party” is not, sadly, the only one in the world who abuse animals. In the small town of Brodilovo in Strandzha Mountains (Bulgaria) the dog spinning ritual, o “trichane na kuche” in Bulgarian, is celebrated. This ritual is supposed to prevent rabies and keep away bad spirits of springtime. This ritual is related to others used at other villages, in which the dogs are whipped or beaten.
In this ritual, a dog is suspended above the Veleka River on a rope then it is turned repeatedly in a direction to wind the rope, then the dog is released so that it spins rapidly in the opposite direction as the rope unwinds. The terrified dogs reach such high speeds that by the time they land in the river they are unable to swim and die under water.
This “tradition” was banned by law in 2006, but a few years ago the villagers and the mayor of Brodilovo renewed it because they were frightened by the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in all the region, Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia and north Greece. The mayor said, “Nobody is killing or hurting the dogs. They are brought by their owners who love them in order to take part in this folklore ritual, which is meant to cleanse the local community of evil and to generate fertility. The dogs are spun for about 15-20 seconds, and then they fall in the water, which amounts to bathing them.”
Animal Rights Sofia mounted a campaign to expose the cruelty of this ritual, but it seems that anyone in the Bulgarian government is doing anything to definitely stop this cruel and nonsense ritual. That’s why we need to do something to stop this insane ritual and tell this people that hurting animals is wrong, that this ritual is medieval and pointless. Please sign this petition in order to tell the mayor of Brodilovo to stop this madness!
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/dog-spinning.mp4
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It’s sad to see the dog being tortured as such. Sacrificing living being is something that hard to accept especially in such condition. How can we sacrifices living being for spirit. There is definitely another way to deal with this negative energy instead of feeding living being to the spirit. Now is dog, next may be human scarify. Can we tolerate it? If not, it should go the same to the dog. Such scarify is not acceptable and I believe they can look into some other way such as protector practice to pacify this issue.
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Shocking to read so called civilised society allow cruelty towards animals based on a folklore that has no scientific, no medical nor logical foundation. I hope the villagers who reinitiated this cruelty will face the music of the law. Thank you for this sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article to create awareness of animal protection. I just wonder what happened to all these people mind nowadays. In the past or history, people use animals in their tradition or ritual, was understandable, due to they were lack of knowledge, they just follow what their ancestor did and they thought it was right. But people nowadays are surrounded by technology, TV, radio, which on and off they create awareness about animal abuse, animal cruelty. And people now are so called more civilize than people in the past. And yet, they can be so ignorant and to continue their so called “ritual”. It is so wrong to harm animal in some ritual or ceremony, or in any ways. Through religion, people can be more mindful, merciful, compassion, and less harming other beings. It is because other beings also have feelings. Hope that people can be more mindful, and stop following all the tradition ceremony/ritual that harm/kill animals. _/\_
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. I find it these people are ignorant. How can they do such thing to a dog? To me, this ritual is not right as it is animal abuse. I really hope the government of Bulgaria will put an end to this abusive action from contiuning.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Human beings are getting desensitized to suffering nowadays. Whatever, the reason for that, it is not acceptable. At least, I can understand it if they really need the animals for food if there is nothing else to eat.
But, to turn cruelty to animals into a sport is stretching it a bit. PETA is doing so much to educate the world but where there is no or almost no access to internet, the job is a bit more difficult. But, we can all try to bring awareness that this kind of actions are not acceptable.
Thank you for the sharing. It should bring some awareness to some people.
Such horrendous act and a naive belief that hurting animals like this will ward off evil spirits.
They said ignorant is bliss but this is not so here.
The animals do have feelings and they must be so terrified by the whole ordeal. I can’t imagine the suffering they have to go through just because of some beliefs.
Let’s hope that this act will be banned again as soon as possible.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.
Jill Yam
Most people like to think it is perfectly alright to put stress on animals, they won’t mind one bit. Thats the kind of attitude a lot of people have towards their favorite seafood, fish feel pain differently than us, in fact fish do not feel pain at all. What a load of self deception and baloney.
现在是文明的世界，人类却越来越残忍，没人性，用残暴的方式来虐待动物。
对动物造成非常大的伤害，动物是人类的朋友。在这个世界动物也是地球的一份子，与我们人类共存一地球，为什么我们就不可以对动物仁慈。
用种种残酷方式来虐待动物，来取乐，这样方式是否合理。
把动物的痛苦建在人类的快乐上，有谁愿意被虐待，人类的贪欲和疯狂可是地球上每天就有一种生物向我们永远地告别，有人说动物可怕，可怕得过人类吗？
任何生命都只有一次，生命是宝贵的。现在，似乎只有人类的生命才宝贵，难道动物生命就一文不值？难道动物的命就不是命？人类的一个小小动作就能夺掉动物的命。
一个人的善良从他对待动物的态度便可体现出，做一个好人并不难——请不要再虐待动物！它们也希望被关爱，保护。
Dear Rinpoche
Thank you for sharing this article and hopefully more people will be aware of animals being abuse in such a cruel way.Its sad to see such heartless and cruel act still exist in Bulgaria.Feeling so sorry for those helpless dogs.Do hope these ancient rituals will be ban soon.
I really can’t believe Bulgaria had such cruelty ritual. I just wondering why they don’t have a mercy to animals.Even though no religion, but for a normal people they also can’t accept this culture.Actually everyone has a Buddha nature but we need to explore it and practice it.
Dharma is very much needed in this country to stop the animal abuse cases. For the current time, we need to sign the petition to ask them stop all these cruelty rituals .
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing and this can be a very good teaching to younger generation to save animals and eat more vege and less meat in our daily meals.
Jason
that’s just mean there just hurting innocent animals and that’s just dad what did the animals ever do to u just wow u should go die be cuz a lot of ppl don’t like animal cruelty
I really cannot believe that people still practise this during this modern era, no animals should suffer for our greed and selfishness. These poor animals have done nothing wrong and certainly they do not deserve to be treated like this and in fact, no one should be subjected to such cruelty even if one is at fault. Moreover, they are just poor little helpless animals, we should respect their rights and stop hurting them in the name of religion/ tradition/ culture/ practise.
This is really extreme cruelty and this is way beyond words, this sort of practise/ ritual should be banned, people must realise that hurting animals definitely won’t get them anywhere. And instead, they are creating more negative karma for misfortune to fall on them.
I am amazed that the mayor of Brodilovo can say such things that they are not hurting the dogs, and that the dogs falling in the water amount to bathing them! There is considerable risk that the dog swallows the dirty water or get water in the lungs as they are totally disconcerted by the spin. The dogs are also shocked and traumatic of the experience.
This ritual was banned by law in 2006, but in 2011, the villagers and the mayor of Brodilovo renewed it because they were frightened by the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in the region. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov even officially condemned it as “barbaric.” Condemning the practice, he has asked the Prosecutor General to take action and called on his government to establish sanctions against the village.
Bulgaria’s parliament recently amended their animal cruelty law to criminalise animal abuse. Serious fines and up to five years in prison can now be handed down to those who “injure an animal on purpose.” We can all make a difference by signing the petition, or writing in. Apparently, besieged by animal rights activists, Brodilovo has watered down the ritual by throwing the dog into the water without spinning it on a rope. Let’s sign the petition to make a change!
“This “tradition” was banned by law in 2006, but a few years ago the villagers and the mayor of Brodilovo renewed it because they were frightened by the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in all the region, Bulgaria, Turkey, Macedonia and north Greece.”
This mayor is clearly ignorant as he chooses superstition to prevent a disease outbreak at the expense of the poor dogs. I wonder if he would burn witches if that was also a tradition since witches were often used as culprits.
It’s very sad that people still do not see that torturing animals is not ok just because we are able to. Some of them even laugh when the poor dog falls into the water. More awareness should be made about animal abuse so that eventually more people are pressure to stop their inhumane activities.
This is extreme cruelty, it is so sad to think that poor dogs drown because of this action. It is cruel. Why do they suffer? It is so selfish of us humans to do this and I have said this again and again, but they are lives and they feel and think like us. They are like us and we would not like this so why do we do it to them? We shouldn’t. We should inflict what we could handle ourselves. That is how we destroy.
Also, in todays world with so much intelligence, why does some superstitious believe like this still exist? It hurts other animals and for the government to allow it is just non-sensical. How can spinning a dog and throwing it in a river scare away disease? I doesn’t make sense so it doesn’t make sense that such a primitive and ancient thing. Why can’t people see past their own blind faith to tradition?
The villagers in Bulgaria are very cruelty and too superstitious. We must educate them how to clear spirits the proper way, which are not harming the dogs; and how to prevent from rabies.
The dogs are in pain, we should not hurt the dogs.
It is sad that mankind endowed with intelligence and powers of empathy can be so cruel by actually preying on animals that have no say or means to defend themselves in any way, shape or form. On top of that, in this day and age, why would anybody wanna perpetuate an old tradition that essentially mistreats and abuses dogs? I think for mankind to truly evolve or for a country to be truly advance, it must have laws that prohibit such practices and that the laws are also enforced. Otherwise, it was just all just a sham.
Also, as someone who helps care for a dog. This is heartbreaking to see how people have little regard for their dogs. There are some people who care for their dogs like they were mere objects to be used for their amusement only. There are others who treat their pets like a member of their own family. Can anybody imagine tying their little kids and spinning them around like that so they fall into the river and calling this a ritual to ward off evil. How many people would go for this?
For most pet-owners, this would be appalling but what about how farm animals are treated especially those with industrial sized farms. How they are crammed, abused, poked and prodded with all sort of chemicals and hormones. On top of that, how they are slaughtered, bled to death and are just made to suffer in order to obtain their meat? How can we make such a huge fuss about how they torture dogs and then we turn around and stuff ourselves with meat. As animals lovers we have to develop empathy for all animals and not one particular animal.
Finally, if we call ourselves Buddhist, we pray for compassion for all beings. Yet, many of us happily partake of meat greedily and happily. We make the aspiration for all sentient beings and yet we happily enjoy the suffering of animals. We pray to avoid rebirth in the 3 lower realms yet we exploit animals of the lower realms. Instead of creating merit, we create negative karma to take rebirth in the lower realms. Just because we cannot conceive of taking rebirth in a lower realm doesn’t mean we cannot or that we have not created the cause to take rebirth in that realm.
Just thought to share some thoughts regarding this matter.
It is really shocking to see that such practice still exist even in such modern times. We are now in the year 2016 and yet all these kind of practices exist, by now we should all be civilized and not rely on cruel ways to get things going our way. All these also say how ignorant and selfish we are.
If someone told you that if you killed a person you would have good luck forever would you believe that? Of course not. But if someone said that if you killed a dog you would have good luck most people would believe that.
For now let’s just keep praying for this practice to quickly end. Ans may this practice end forever.
A cruel and heartless act due to the ignorance of the mayor and villagers!!! No living beings deserved to be treated in this manner!
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this article to raise awareness about this cruel ritual. In the post, it was said that the ritual is being done to ward off diseases. It is so foolish and ignorant for the villagers to believe that by doing this horrible act can save them from rabies and other diseases.
This shows us how scary it is to be ignorant. Being ignorant cause us to harm and hurt people and beings around us. However, ultimately we hurt ourselves by being ignorant. We create negative karma by being ignorant and will suffer for it when we take rebirth in the lower realms. Dharma is our only hope to liberate ourselves from being ignorant.
Humbly,
Chris
A cruel and senseless act performed by a superstitious community.
How foolish are they to actually think that spinning dogs will ward off spirits and diseases? Let put it this way: You harmed a living being, thinking that it will ward off spirits. Why are people scared of spirits, because they believe that all kinds of spirits are evil. So aren’t you a spirit or rather a demon for harming a living being? So how much different are you compared to the spirits?
The video above really upset me. Spinning dogs on ropes might seem funny to people who are amateur and selfish. The dog obviously look like it is about to puke anytime but they did not bother help it instead, they put it up on the rope once again and spin it. I cannot believe that they would have the guts to call this a tradition, this is humiliating and I am extremely disgusted by their behaviors.
Dogs are living beings too. Treat them as you would treat your love ones, being vegetarian can be a bit difficult in the beginning but it can be easily achieved bit by bit with strong compassion and determination. Let’s start off by signing this petition!
Sometimes I think people are too blinded with superstitious and think that as long as it is for the benefit of themselves then scarifying others (including people, animal or other beings) is acceptable. This is a a very selfish action. Why would spinning the dog in the air will cast away the disease.
I hope by sharing this story and creating more awareness will help people to know and stop such cruelty. I hope the local people of Bulgaria will realize that they are abusing the dogs and local authority to ban this activity quickly.
It is really hard to believe that in such modern day and age, people are still doing such cruel things towards animals.
This “folklore”, meant to “cleanse the local community of any evil” really has to stop, innocent dogs shouldn’t have to go through all this.
How can the Mayor of Brodilovo say that nobody is killing or hurting the dogs when it is fairly obvious that dogs are drowning when they land in the river due to the speeds the dogs were spinning at which caused them to be dizzy.
Really hoping that this cruel tradition will stop soon!