From using to caring: can mindfulness support a more ethical behaviour towards animals?

Placing animals at the bottom of the pyramid and using them to satisfy human requirements is such an old and rooted behaviour that no amount of intellectual reasoning, empirical evidence or catastrophic scenario seems to be persuasive enough to induce real change. Apart from the works of Joanna Macy (the Work That Reconnects) or Mathieu Ricard's Plea for the Animals (2016), Buddhist and/or mindfulness scholars rarely address the issue of the animal condition, even though this has become a great and pressing concern. This paper claims that the current flourishing of mindfulness - per se and linked to all realms of human life (health, leadership, education, etc.) – can and should be used to generate the understanding needed to promote alternative ways to relate to (production) animals. The central argument is that mindfulness - understood as both the Buddhadharma and the contemporary practices rooted in those teachings - is a relevant means to induce a more ethical behaviour towards animals. By focusing on production animals, the paper intends to capture more closely the case of those who are most directly exposed to human endeavours.
It starts by exploring the confluences between three core Buddhist concepts and the field of animal ethics. It argues that i) presence (understood as introspective awareness and attention); ii) interconnectedness or non-duality/non separation; and iii) compassion are three basic understandings/qualities on which basis one can build a more caring relation to animals. It then describes the process and results of the Focus (semi-structured) interviews conducted amongst fifteen individuals enrolled in a training to become mindfulness teachers – and thus reputed to have consistent meditation practice and acceptable understanding of the Buddhist teachings. Based on both, the theoretical considerations and the analysis s of the interviews, the paper concludes by shedding some light on the process through which mindfulness (and, in particular, the cultivation of the three above mentioned qualities) is conducive to positive changes in our behaviour towards animals.