Buddhists in NJ fined for buying Chinatown animals and releasing them into the wild
Posted on August 14th, 2007 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, Amitabha Buddhists, Arlington, Chinatown, crime, Department of Environmental Protection, environment, free will, gas money, Mark Boriek, New Jersey, New York, Passaic River, Pennsylvania, property, the Herald 20 Comments »A New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists bought hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles in Chinatown to set them free in the Passaic River, hoping they would not only survive but also realize their karmic potential.
Saving the animals, though, did not do anything for the karma of the state Department of Environmental Protection. DEP pfficials say the Buddhists did not have a permit and may be subject to fines up to $1,000.
Releasing critters into the wild takes a permit - and because of fears of harm being done by nonnative species, New Jersey is reluctant to issue them out for anything beyond stocking fish ponds.
“We’re dead-set against it,” DEP biologist Mark Boriek told the Herald News of West Paterson for Tuesday’s newspapers. “It’s even illegal to stock any kind of carp or goldfish in New Jersey in a place with an inlet or outlet.”
I don’t agree with the DEP… or care about nonnative species… but releasing them into the Passaic? I used to live 2 blocks from the Passaic River in North Arlington and it is still far from being an OK living environment for bacteria let alone eels, frogs and turtles. The joke used to be you could walk across it because it was so full of trash, bodies and drugs. The ‘water’ was black. These Buddhists could have spent the extra gas money and brought them to PA, South Jersey or Northern New York.
