In which I oppose animal cruelty. . .

Last updated on: January 7, 2014 at 4:16 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

In which I oppose animal cruelty. . . 2014-01-07T16:16:39-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Facebook friend asked me to “oppose all animal cruelty” and I agreed to do so. My parent’s new cat, Jasper the Menace, recently bit me on my sore knee and then gleefully scampered away.

I oppose this cruelty.

I oppose all animal cruelty, especially to other animals. When the lion takes down the injured zebra, he is acting with cruelty. I firmly oppose this action at least if it appears on my television. When Bambi’s mother, strips the trees in my yard of bark, I oppose Bambi’s mother in her ecologically unsound actions. How much global warming has been caused by the unconstrained flatulence of farm beasts?

And yet, I think I missed the point my Facebook friend was making. She wanted to stop all human cruelty to animals. This is good cause . . . all kidding aside. Of course, the difficulty will be to define “cruelty” and “animal.” Is a human an animal? Surely. But then is a fetus an animal? If so, then isn’t a third term abortion cruel if the fetus feels pain?

Humans have not done so well at avoiding cruelty to other humans . . . so I am not hopeful about how we will do with animals, but our constant moral failure should spur moral ambitions not deter from them!

We are cruel to the class the Victorians called “the dumb brutes.” These are the animals who cannot speak for themselves and who are often used as if they were mere tools for our pleasure instead of creations of God with feelings. A child of God should elevate animals and care for them, making them better than they would be in the wild, happier, or we should leave them alone. Instead, humanity often has misused them and by so doing lowering ourselves to depths they cannot imagine.The lion has no moral code to transgress, but the cruel zoo keeper should know better than cruelty and so is worse than the lion.

Who will enforce rules against animal cruelty? I certainly think that cruel boys who throw kittens in rivers deserve our social condemnation. Do their actions merit arrest?

Since animals are not human, they do not have human rights. Since they cannot speak for themselves, we cannot extend them autonomy. Humans have great power over them, whether we wish it or not. Our relationship to animals must be maternalistic/paternalistic and therein lies the danger for humanity. It is easy for one group of humans to “speak for the animals” since the animals will never contradict them. Who will decide if the beast in the zoo is better off or the beast in the wild? Who will decide what can be done to an animal?

Government has a role in preventing the worst of human cruelty and certainly in preventing extinction, but beyond those minimal powers (granting animals life and animal flourishing), the state must not go. Human sentimentality is so easily extended to animals and so is brutality! We call “communication” what we imagine is communication or we ignore obvious animal pain because it provides some small benefit to us.

Animals do best when faced with humanity in individuals. Few of us will try to keep dangerous beasts as pets or sentimentalize the groundhog in our yard. With proper education, only a small number will engage in intentional animal cruelty. Where animal cruelty has become a sport, such as dog fighting, the community has the right to ban such debasing human behavior . . . not because animals have rights, but because people are debased by such behavior.

If too much power over the animals is given to any state, extremists in either camps (animals are people! or animals are meat!) inevitably will drive the agenda. In this way, we will either overprotect or under protect animals- harming our souls in both directions.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

January 6, 2014

The Mystical Next Time

Next Post

January 9, 2014 I have a dream!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is Paul's longest letter, with the fullest explanation of the gospel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1 Corinthians Romans 2 Corinthians James

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »