[Buddha-l] Re: [Photographs of] Tibetan Sky Burial

[jkirk]

Hi Andrew,
Relax, the poor vultures are on last legs.
Last night, as it happens, on NPR's BBC program, they had one on these very 
dying vultures and diclofenac, which is also apparently used for pain by 
vets and animal owners, so dead cows might have a lot of it in their bodies 
and dead cows used also to be regularly consumed by the vultures (since cows 
cannot be slaughtered in India). One Parsi woman being interviewed said she 
was sad that their tradition was dying, and that even though "people laugh 
at us for giving our dead bodies to vultures, it's the cleanest way to 
dispose of them."  She has a point, no?
The program also said that there are now two vulture conservation outfits in 
India, one near Delhi, where they hope to keep the species alive by breeding 
them with safe food, but one man said it might take ten to fifteen years 
before the new ones could be released into the wild. Several people spoke of 
the urgency to remove this drug from the markets in India, a daunting task 
considering all the little corner and road stores that might sell it. They 
claimed these vultures are dying out all over Asia, but nothing was said 
about the Tibetan vultures. Maybe this drug hasn't reached Tibet yet, but 
one wonders how soon Chinese merchants will be purveying it there.
Comparable situations in the US are that NSAID drugs are now found in fresh 
water fish, along with hormones and who knows what else.
Joanna



> Tue, 14 Mar 2006 jkirk wrote:
>
>>The Parsis also practice sky burial, differently arranged, but lately in
> Mumbai the necesary vultures are dying out, people think from 
> environmental
> poisoning of some kind.
>
> The toxic agent is a moderately potent painkiller called sodium 
> diclofenac. It
> is potentially harmful to the consumer's liver and kidneys, and hence 
> those of
> the consumer of the consumer. Thus improvements in medical provision in 
> Mumbai
> are bad news for vultures. (So, Joanna, when I go, don't put me out for 
> the
> birds.)
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
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