Jaipitty Palluq on Animal Kindness

English Transcript:

All animals, you're not supposed to play, hurt or kill them, even insects. If you even kill black flies or mosquitoes with fire while they're in your tent, they'll return and there will be more of them. I've experienced this.

This story is from a long time ago. My namesake, who is buried in Kapuivik, had a short temper like me. He cut off the nose of a live caribou fawn. He was hunting, moving into the wind, and a caribou caught his scent and ran away. He was pissed off. He ran after the fawn, caught it, and cut off its nose because it smelled him easily. He started to eat the nose, while the caribou was running around, gushing blood from its snout. He did that, my namesake, Pudluq. When he grew older, he started to have a problem with his nose, and his nasal passages disintegrated, and he was forced to breath through his mouth. He was suffering and died a horrible death. That's why we should not make fun of animals.

We're not supposed to make animals suffer by not killing them right away. Even arguing about animals, using words, can make them disappear in a following year. Fish and foxes are most easily affected. We know that. Even whales, walrus and any other animal. If we argue about them, fighting over food, saying "I caught this". If we get pissed off and argue because of animals, this is very wrong.

According to the teachings I've been given, you're not supposed to kill animals and just leave them partially butchered. When I see this, I don't like it, and I have to finish the job.