“Buddhist Animal Release Practices: Historic, Environmental, Public Health And Economic Concerns”, Henry Shiu, Leah Stokes2008-12-08 (Japanese history, ethics)⁠:

Animal release has long been a component of Buddhist practice, although it is little studied contemporarily.

This paper examines the historical roots of these rituals, arguing that they may ultimately have been adopted into Chinese Buddhist practices. A short survey of contemporary Buddhist practice in various traditions is given, including references to important scriptural authority.

Practices involving large-scale, ritualized animal release is then argued to have a number of unintended negative environmental repercussions, resulting in potential new, non-native invasive species. These practices are also considered from contemporary economic and public health perspectives, culminating in the argument that their compassionate intentions are often lost in the act.

…After addressing the challenge in distinguishing ‘animal release’ (fangsheng) from other acts of compassion towards animals, it becomes apparent that the earliest description of animal release rituals we can find is not from a Buddhist source, but from a Taoist work known as the Liezi. The passage in the Liezi reads as follows:

The people of Han-tan presented doves to Chao Chien-tzu on New Year’s morning. He was delighted and richly rewarded them. When a visitor asked the reason, Chien-tzu explained: ‘We release living things on New Year’s Day as a gesture of kindness.’ [The visitor replied]: ‘The people know you wish to release them, so they vie with each other to catch them, and many of the doves die. If you wish to keep them alive, it would be better to forbid the people to catch them. When you release doves after catching them, the kindness does not make up for the mistake.’ ‘You are right’, said Chien-tzu. [Graham1960, 178]

…Ethical problems: As this ritual increases in popularity, the demand for animals to release also increases, leading to the commercialization of the practice. Very often, the animals to be released need to be specially ordered for this ceremonial purpose, which logically involves catching otherwise free animals. Today’s modern reality reflects the wisdom of the previously cited passage from the Liezi in which the minister warns the emperor encouraging the ritual that it creates a demand for more animals, increasing the supply. Williams clearly illustrated this ethical dilemma in his study of animal release in Medieval Japan:

Taira Masayuki’s research has shown that in the medieval period, the shrine was extremely concerned about having enough fish and clams to release (usually in the range of one to three thousand). Thus, more than triple the number were captured several weeks ahead of time to ensure that enough animals would be available by the time the state envoy arrived. In other words, if three thousand fish were to be released at the hōjō-e, a total of nine thousand would need to be captured and purchased by the shrine with the understanding that two-thirds of them might die before they could be released. (Williams1997, “Animal liberation, death, and the state: rites to release animals in medieval Japan”, pg155)

As this example illustrates, institutionalized or regular practice of animal release creates a need to capture animals. Such capture causes the deaths of animals, possibly outnumbering those eventually released during the ceremony, in a direct contradiction to the intention of the practice.

…In an article published in 2004 by the Environment & Animal Society of Taiwan, it is reported that, among the 155 pet stores all of Taiwan, 63 of them supply birds of more than 35 species to the Buddhist organizations for ceremonial release purposes.⁶ The article, entitled “The Reality of Catching, Buying and Selling Birds for Releasing” (Fangsheng liao buzhua maimai zhenxiang), gives a detailed description of the cycle of catching and releasing birds for animal release purposes with the following steps: orders are made by the Buddhist organizations; hunters catch birds; wholesalers collect the captive birds; birds are sold to the retailers; retailers sell birds to Buddhist organizations; birds are released in a ceremony; and hunters wait to catch the released birds. As this case clearly illustrates, the practice is unlikely to have its intended effect of liberating captured animals; similar cases of hunters waiting nearby have been reported in Cambodia (Sipress2006) and in Australia (de Bien2005). Apart from the issue of recapture, there is often high mortality of the animals used in the practice. A news article from the Chinese newspaper Sing Tao Daily reported that 8000 birds were found dead in the Baiyun area in Guangzhou, a place where many people go on weekend mornings to release birds and pray for merits. [Sing Tao Daily, 1 November 2005, citing a report from the Guangzhou local newspaper Nanfang Dushi Bao of the same day.] According to the Institute of Supervising Animal Epidemic Control of Guangzhou, the death rate of released birds is 90% or higher. Taking into consideration the entire process of ordering, shipping, and keeping the animals until an auspicious day, in addition to the possibility that animals will be released into a non-native environment, the ritual results in an abnormally high death rate.