How Did Buddhism Treat Animals

Early Buddhists but, not the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama himself, used the idea that animals were spiritually inferior as a justification for the exploitation and mistreatment of animals. It is widely recognized that experimenting on animals is wrong. Buddhists say that this is morally wrong if the animal experiences any pain. So perhaps a Buddhist approach to experiments on animals might require the experimenter to accept the karma of carrying out such an action.

The positive way Buddhists behave towards animals is that Buddhism requires us to treat animals kindly as Buddhists almost always do whatever they can to live without causing harm to any other living being. Buddhists try to show love and kindness to all beings, including animals.