<p>Monks often look after animals similar to having pets.</p>

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CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-20T09:23:51.220Z
2017-05-21T09:44:57.003Z
2017-05-21T09:44:57.003Z
Dhamma Dhatu
<p>The difficulty that a practicing Buddhist faces if s/he is a pet owner and a time comes when the pet falls ill and the person decides to “put to sleep” this pet. This is in conflict with the vow of abstaining from killing. After all, animal euthanasia means one is deliberately killing and therefore breaking one of the five precepts. This is creating the karmic cause for one to be born in the hell realm. Even though in the present day we have come to accept the belief that killing with a motivation that is “totally pure” becomes a virtue, it is not so. To take life — one's own or someone else's — is wrong no matter what, something outlined in the first precept which guides us to abstain from killing living beings. So this is the difficulty that a practicing Buddhist faces. </p>

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2017-05-20T14:34:15.103Z
2017-05-20T14:34:15.103Z
Saptha Visuddhi
<p>I heard Lord Buddha didn't accede foster a pet.Buddha taught it's a way of clinging.At the present lot of monks(at Mahayana)practice fostering pet.But according to Theravada it's a  fault.</p>

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2017-05-21T08:59:39.783Z
Please provide a reference about what you have posted; that looking after an animal is prohibited in the Vinaya. Thank you
Dhamma Dhatu
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2017-05-22T11:49:25.593Z
I'm sorry.Did you mean fostering and clinging are two.I can understand.
Olivia Glad
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2017-05-22T19:03:33.160Z
Fostering is not clinging.
Dhamma Dhatu
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2017-05-21T08:07:03.720Z
2017-05-21T08:29:35.793Z
2017-05-21T08:29:35.793Z
Olivia Glad
<p>It is good karma to save a living being's life, which is what you do when you take care of one. </p>

<p>Fostering is better than buying one, because when you foster a pet, you don't encourage inbreeding and other abuses that happen in pet-breeding.</p>

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2017-05-20T11:04:15.673Z
2017-05-20T12:00:47.240Z
2017-05-20T12:00:47.240Z
Katinka Hesselink
<p>What's the Buddhist view of fostering a pet? </p>

<personal-practice><life>
What's the Buddhist view of fostering pets?
# What's the Buddhist view of fostering pets?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-05-20)

What's the Buddhist view of fostering a pet?

**Tags:** personal-practice, life


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## 4 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-05-20. Score: 4

It is good karma to save a living being's life, which is what you do when you take care of one.

Fostering is better than buying one, because when you foster a pet, you don't encourage inbreeding and other abuses that happen in pet-breeding.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2017-05-20. Score: 1

Monks often look after animals similar to having pets.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/iZfa7.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/iZfa7.jpg)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/wiagQ.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/wiagQ.jpg)[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/z36Kb.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/z36Kb.jpg)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Ql4jE.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/Ql4jE.jpg)


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### Answer by username_2 on 2017-05-20. Score: 0

The difficulty that a practicing Buddhist faces if s/he is a pet owner and a time comes when the pet falls ill and the person decides to “put to sleep” this pet. This is in conflict with the vow of abstaining from killing. After all, animal euthanasia means one is deliberately killing and therefore breaking one of the five precepts. This is creating the karmic cause for one to be born in the hell realm. Even though in the present day we have come to accept the belief that killing with a motivation that is “totally pure” becomes a virtue, it is not so. To take life — one's own or someone else's — is wrong no matter what, something outlined in the first precept which guides us to abstain from killing living beings. So this is the difficulty that a practicing Buddhist faces.


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### Answer by username_0 on 2017-05-21. Score: 0

I heard Lord Buddha didn't accede foster a pet.Buddha taught it's a way of clinging.At the present lot of monks(at Mahayana)practice fostering pet.But according to Theravada it's a fault.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Please provide a reference about what you have posted; that looking after an animal is prohibited in the Vinaya. Thank you  
> **username_0**: I'm sorry.Did you mean fostering and clinging are two.I can understand.  
> **username_1**: Fostering is not clinging.  

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