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Posts Tagged ‘compassion’

Cleaning up the pigeons’ poop.

Posted in Love all wings, tagged , , on 22/10/2025|

I decided to take action and clean up the pigeon droppings at my void deck. Someone kind has been leaving two cat food pouches almost every day for the feeders to feed the cats. Since I don’t know when the person leaves them, I’m often not there at the right time to pick them up. If the pouches aren’t collected in time, the clever crows and pigeons will peck holes in them and eat the food. That’s why there are droppings everywhere.

Before cleaning

I would like the residents and visitors to have a place to sit, and I also hope that the pigeons can stay safe in this area.

After feeding the community cats past midnight, when it was quiet, I took out my tools and began scraping away the droppings.

After cleaning
This was done last night and I cleaned it again.

It wasn’t hard to clean. All we need is a lot of kindness and a little effort and we can coexist. However, the authorities prefer the easiest and cheapest way to deal with it, that is to kill.

I’m planning to clean the floor as well. It doesn’t really matter whether what I do can make a difference in preventing the authorities from killing the birds. It’s in their nature to eat and poop, after all. Only those who kill will have to face their karmic consequences, and I truly hope that can be avoided.

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The skeleton of a dead bird

Posted in Love all wings, tagged , , , on 30/09/2025|

I was feeding at Sembawang one afternoon when I saw the skeleton of a dead bird lying on the grass. I believe it was a fledgling that had been unable to find food or keep itself warm. It was a lifeless, untouched, complete skeleton.

When I looked at the bird, I asked myself why would the world want the birds to die so badly. The majority supports killing but to wish death on others is unnecessary since we will all die one day. Regardless of any species, wouldn’t it be better to rejoice when others have food to eat and water to drink? Why can’t everyone live with that joy until death comes to us? Then there will be no resentment or hatred, only kindness and compassion, perhaps a little smile when we face death.

There are hundreds of thousands of birds out there. How many times and for how long, must we be angry with them and wish them dead? Why is it so difficult to cultivate inner joy for others?

Obviously, it was a fledging. A fledging who had lost its mother and its source of care.

One day, a Buddhist questioned me on Facebook, asking if I had accepted the First of the Four Noble Truths. I didn’t reply until a local monk ‘visited’ my page and commented, ‘Did the Buddha promote veganism?’ He said it only to spite me.

Because I hadn’t replied to the first person earlier, I responded to the monk by saying that accepting the First of the Four Noble Truths doesn’t mean I should just sit and do nothing. Promoting veganism and raising public awareness that animals suffer so much because of us, benefits not only ourselves, but also the animals, the environment, and the climate. Since the monk was only there to spite me, he said nothing further and moved on to the next post. He tried to find fault with me and put words into my mouth. Whatever he did, he will ultimately have to face the consequences himself.

Understanding and accepting suffering does not mean that our compassion ends there. Nor does it mean that we have to lament or cry over it. We can keep calm, accept it and influence or inspire others to extend their loving~kindness and compassion towards all sentient beings in all directions.

This image is also a reminder that we are the same.

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Freeing the pigeon’s feet

Posted in Love all wings, tagged , , , on 12/07/2025|

A few nights ago, while I was driving upslope at the multi-storey carpark, I spotted a pigeon sitting at the side of the slope. Immediately after parking my car, I walked towards the pigeon wondering what could have happened to her. I tried to shoo her away from the dangerous path, just in case a vehicle may crush her.

As I shooed her away, I noticed she had difficulty walking properly and from that instant I knew it could be due to some sort of string that was tying around both her feet. She flew on top of my car. I knew she would continue to fly if I approached her. So I tried to explain my intention to her from a distance. She was all so cute. She tilted her head to the left and right while listening to me. After I explained, I grabbed her and she wasn’t struggling at all until I tried to remove the hair and a rubber band from both her feet. She struggled a little and I guess it must be painful!

It took me quite a while to cut away the hair and the rubber band as I didn’t want to cut her accidentally.

Hair and rubber band already removed from the pigeon.
Hair and rubber band

Her feet looked good and not badly damaged. She was able to stand but stumbled quite a bit. Whatever that is hurting her feet requires time to heal. She didn’t fly away but kept looking at me. I wish her to be safe always and this will never happen to her again and that she will receive help all the time.

Pigeons are such gentle and harmless birds. All we want is food and water. Even though many think that we are not allowed to give water but I insist giving them water every day. Singapore’s weather is so hot and humid. The sun is so strong that I could feel my skin burning all the time. Intentionally not allowing or kicking away the water given to them is not only a selfish act but also an immoral conduct. It’s inhumane. It’s not what a human being should do to another sentient being who needs water as much as we do.

Be kind to all animals. We are all the same!

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The grieving mother elephant…

Posted in The learning experience…, tagged , , , , , on 02/07/2025|

How could we possibly crave for milk or cheese when we all know that cow’s milk belong to the calf? How could we separate the calf from its mother when it is only a day old?

Videos have shown the desperation the mother cow chasing after her calf when it was

intentionally and cruelly separated from the mother by human beings. Yes, human beings who have long forgotten how they were taken care of by their mother and how they need their mother to survive!

Such livelihood is immoral and unethical, so does ignoring the pain and suffering of a cow. The sight of a mother cow having to produce large quality of milk throughout her entire life is heart wrenching. There is so much pain that I could even feel them. Sadly, human mothers turn a blind eye. What a shame!

The grieving mother elephant who lost her baby in a car accident. She is worth the time sketching her.

Elephant or cow, cats, dogs, horses, birds, rats or penguins, they all love their child! From the grieving mother elephant, we all know we are all the same!

Being a vegan is hard and life being an animal in a factory farm, laboratory, fur farm and places where exploitation towards them is even harder. I’ve always wondered, which part of pain that humans do not understand?

During the Buddha’s time, the human population wasn’t as great as today. Today, we all know that animals are intentionally killed for us. I would say that the three conditions that the Buddha allowed the monastic to eat meat is no longer valid today. The sufferings of the animals is way beyond imagination and comprehension.

Ajahn Sujato and Ajahn Vajiro and many more are vegetarian. They are from the Theravada tradition. They are not defying the Buddha’s instruction. They have understood the conditions that being a vegan is necessary today!

We can get all the nutrients from plants and we don’t need animals at all. If a nutrient is lacking in our body, before we eat, believe that the nutrient that we need is already readily contained in the vegetable that we are going to eat. Our right mindset is very important!

Compassion towards all sentient beings does not stop at visualising but in action!

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Pigeons want to live too…

Posted in Love all wings, tagged , , , , , on 09/06/2025|

When humans fear death, animals have to die.

Whenever there is an outbreak, animals are the first to be blamed and killed. It was never humans’ greed over food that caused the spreading of viruses or diseases.

All animals carry virus and diseases like us and this is perfectly normal. Just like birth, illness, aging and death.

We all know that we are the cause for damaging the environment, Mother Earth and this is not enough. Today, we want to get rid of the animals, we make use of them, exploit them and sacrifice them for our own profit, our selfishness.

Pigeons make good companions and helped send messages in the past. Majority of the people today wants them to go away. We call them pests and make them look like one. The worst thing is we make others believe that they are pests!

I would think otters are likely to be considered as pests in Singapore in future as the population continues to grow. There are people who are already complaining about the otters. It’s a matter of when.

There are always humane solutions to manage the animals. But we choose an easy way over humane ways. However, if everyone could extend our compassion to all living beings and call for humane solutions, we could live not only harmoniously but also create a loving environment!

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