Master Says
Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai, Florida, USA, June 6, 2001 (Originally in English) Videotape No. 714

If you have a dog, you have to treat him at least like yourself -- with good hygiene, food and love. He's like a member of the family, only different looking. Every time we take the dog out to relieve himself on the grass, we must pick up the 'deposit.' Or we should have plastic ready to catch it, so it doesn't spread any dirt, disease or filth to other people or to other dogs. If your dog is sick and he relieves himself everywhere and other dogs step on it, those other dogs will get sick, too. And so every time we bring him out to relieve himself, when we bring him back in, we should clean his whole body. I will show you how.

For example, you can get a kitchen towel or any towel. This one (Master shows the towel She is holding) is too small, but it's just for demonstration. A kitchen towel is tougher. It doesn't tear. So on the dog, you have to clean everything, because it might smell or stink. Clean the whole body, up and down and so on. First, clean his leg. (Master cleans Her poodle) And then clean his paw, and then all four paws and the pee and the poo. And then he can come into the house. Because then, whatever disease or bacteria he accumulated has been de-sanitized. I use lemon water, but you may have other things.
Use lemon water or vinegar water to clean the house, so the house doesn't have chemicals in it. Because the dogs sleep on the floor, and they lick the floor when they eat and drop their food. If they eat off of something you cleaned with chemicals, they die or they get sick. And then you spend either the whole money or the whole time for the doctor bill, or you throw the dog out.

This is a problem with a lot of people. They punish the dog for their own stupidity, carelessness and lovelessness. So, many dogs end up in the animal shelter when it's not their fault at all. It's the human's fault and stupidity. Many humans don't deserve dogs. Sometimes I'm driving outside and I see pickup trucks in the summer heat of Florida; the people put a couple of dogs in this roofless bed behind the pickup truck. There is nothing to hang on to; it's just metal. And then they get too hot. They run all around and sometimes fall down behind the truck.

Maybe they get used to it. I don't know how long they have to be used to it. But they probably have headaches when they come home. And they cannot tell you if they have a headache. If you sat in that pickup truck all that long distance, you would have a headache, too. And you even have long, big hair to cover yourself. Those dogs are such poor dogs. Some dogs have short hair; some don't even have hair. When I see this, I think humans don't deserve dogs. Dogs are so loving, so kind, and so faithful. They would die for you. They lay down their life for you whenever danger comes. Their guarding instinct comes out, and they would die for you, any time, with no regrets!
But some humans don't deserve dogs, really. So it breaks my heart every time I see people treat animals this way. At the same time, if someone says you are an animal, it is a curse. It means you are very low, bad and stupid. But can you imagine anyone more stupid than we are sometimes? Some of us are stupid.

Of course, some dogs are raised to live outside. But still, you have to take care so they don't have fleas. There are preventive medicines; they don't even cost that much. Once a month, you can apply some worm medication and flea medication, and he will be free of suffering. Once a month, that's it. Or, there are shampoos to keep him flea-free and things like that. But it's better to prevent than to kill. We don't want killing. Even worms or fleas, we don't want to kill them.