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How Should We Treat the Animals?
[Note: If the topic of this article at first glance seems obscure to you, please take a deep breath and withhold your evaluation until you have perused the content. Also, read the author's postscript at the conclusion of the article so that you will understand the purpose of this material. If we are willing to change our ways, we can better exemplify the life of Christ, and avoid being a stumbling-block for the contemporary environmentalist who needs Jesus just as we do. —Larry Kirkpatrick, ed.]
One of the most deeply held beliefs of mankind is that human beings are the absolute masters of the earth. Animals are here only to serve us—to carry our burdens, to be our food, or to be our pets, as we choose. So how should Adventists relate to the animal world?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This means that we are called to reflect a character like God's character. His motives, values, and way of dealing with us, as shown throughout Scripture, are to become our motives, values, and way of dealing with others.
Everything we do should be measured by the principles of the Bible. The character we develop now will be taken unchanged into Heaven. We must understand God's principles and, through faith in Christ, live by them. One of these is the dominion principle.
God's Dominion Principle
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26). This text has been used to teach that whatever we do to animals is acceptable to God. But has it been applied correctly?
All animals were created for Christ: “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16). We cannot own what belongs to God; we are only caretakers. In Genesis 1, Christ gave us dominion over animals, not ownership.
What then does dominion mean? David describes how a good king rules: “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth
This king has dominion over his subjects, and they praise him. “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” (Psalm 103:19) Jesus is our King! To exercise dominion over animals, we must understand how He exercises dominion over us. This is God's dominion—God is over us in the same way we are over animals.
Adam was the caretaker of Eden, a steward of God's creations (Genesis 2:15). One important aspect of his dominion was that he was not to eat any animals (Genesis 1:29). His dominion was not tyrannical nor dictatorial, and that is the beauty of God's dominion. Like the subjects in Psalm 72, those he has dominion over are blessed.
Satan always counterfeits God's principles and has warped our concept of God's dominion. God is represented as a tyrant who chooses who will be saved and who will burn in hell. Satan sends natural disasters which we call acts of God. When people die, Satan persuades us to blame God. Just as Satan perverts our perception of God's dominion over us, he distorts our dominion over animals.
Principles of Taking Life
So how do we apply God's dominion? When does God allow us to take an animal's life? To answer that we must first look at God's example with us. Under what circumstances did God allow the taking of human life?
- Capital punishment. Crimes requiring the death penalty: premeditated murder (Numbers 35:16-21, 26-28); spiritualistic mediums (Leviticus 20:6).
- Self-defense. Israel could defend themselves against other nations: Philistines (1 Samuel 4-7, 17, 18); Midian (Judges chs. 6-8). This also applied to the individual.
- God's direct command. Examples of this: Israel to destroy Canaanites (Joshua chs. 1-12); Achan's household stoned (Joshua ch. 7); Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus ch. 10).
Now with animals, capital punishment does not apply, since they cannot knowingly break God's laws.
With self-defense, if an animal attacks a human, it is acceptable to kill that particular animal, not the entire species (see David and the lion in 1 Samuel 17:34-36).
God's command is shown in two areas. First—animal sacrifices, commanded after sin. These services pointed to Christ's sacrifice and were intended to show man the horror of sin. When Jesus was crucified, He ended these services (Matthew 27:50, 51). Second—killing animals for food. “After the flood meat eating was allowed because of the hardness of man's heart.” (E. G. White Manuscript, Nov. 5, 1890) However, only clean animals were to be eaten, and never blood! “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (Genesis 9:4). (See also Leviticus 17:10-14.) Ezekiel 33:25, 26 lists the eating of blood with idol worship, murder, and adultery as Israel's chief sins, indicating how serious God considers this. The prohibition was continued unchanged into the Christian era (see Acts 15:28, 29).
Today. many groups are promoting vegetarianism. For Christians, it represents the original diet—God's ideal. Even more importantly, vegetarianism reduces cruelty to animals.
Principles of Causing Suffering
Many believe animals suffer much less than humans, or not at all, because they're supposedly different from us. But are they? Everything evolutionists believed was special in humans has been found in animals: tool use, modifying their surroundings, culture, language.
Many Christians say that animals lack a soul, but what does the Bible say? “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). What about animals? “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life” (Genesis 7:15). So animals also have the breath of life. ”And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea” (Revelation 16:3). So animals are living souls. They are identical to us in this respect!
The only difference is that we have the image of God, meaning especially that we can choose between right and wrong. But in terms of pain and suffering, there is no difference! We feel pain because we are vertebrates with a nervous system. All vertebrate animals—mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians—have nervous systems like ours and the capacity to feel pain.
Animals also feel emotions and have intelligence. They think and make choices based on experience. Entire books have been written documenting cases of animal emotion and intelligence. Ellen White comments, “The intelligence displayed by many dumb animals approaches so closely to human intelligence that it is a mystery. The animals see and hear and love and fear and suffer. They use their organs far more faithfully than many human beings use theirs. They manifest sympathy and tenderness toward their companions in suffering. Many animals show an affection for those who have charge of them, far superior to the affection shown by some of the human race. They form attachments for many which are not broken without great suffering to them” (Ministry of Healing, pp. 315-316).
Is it ever acceptable to cause animals to suffer? Again, according to the Bible, when can we cause humans to suffer?
- Discipline. Spanking a child, locking up a thief, Moses leading the rebellious Israelites for forty years in the wilderness—all are forms of discipline.
- To save life. Surgery that causes pain but saves the person's life.
So some examples with animals would be:
- Discipline. Leashing a dog to prevent it from chasing anyone. Placing electric fences around a chicken house to keep out foxes.
- To save life. Taking animals to a vet. Having pets spayed or neutered to control reproduction.
Principles of Animal Care
“The merciful provisions of the law extended even to the lower animals, which cannot express in words their want and suffering” (Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 500). Work animals were given relief in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:10; also see Exodus 23:4, 5). In Deuteronomy 22:6, 7 limits were set on birds taken from a nest to keep them from being exterminated. “Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together” (Deuteronomy 22:10). This is to prevent the suffering caused by unequally yoking two different kinds of animals together, the differing size and strength making it difficult for both animals to function. “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” (Deuteronomy 25:4). Here, God instructed that the working animal is not to be deprived of a just reward for its labor. Proverbs 12:10 provides the best summary: “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
It seems that nearly everyone agrees that animals should not be mistreated, but when asked what that exactly means, the conclusions differ widely. A vague sentiment is insufficient; we must be specific and practical. How we care for animals reveals our character, and whether Christ's compassionate nature is in our lives: “A man who is harsh, severe and domineering toward the lower animals, because he has them in his power, is both a coward and a tyrant
Many of our actions affect animals, and we need to realize that we have direct control of the suffering and death of living beings. It is not something that happens “out there,” but on our plates and in our closets. So what are the steps we can take to reflect Christ's love in our daily lives?
Direct Results
The Golden Rule is our guide to interaction with all the inhabitants of the world. Our duty is to implement this rule every day. The single most important step we can take to save the lives of animals is choosing not to eat them. Every time we eat meat we are directly ending the life of an innocent animal. For much of history there was often no choice; in order to survive in unusually harsh conditions humans had to eat animals. However, today in developed countries it is not only unnecessary but very unhealthy. Today we eat animals solely because we like how they taste. This is not a good enough reason, when we consider how they are treated during their lives.
Chickens and turkeys are raised in sheds, too crowded together to move normally. Many cows and pigs are also indoors in concrete stalls. Most animals in such unnatural conditions live short, unhappy lives. As soon as possible they are taken by the most economical method to be killed. Along the way many are injured or die from exposure. Many “downers” (those too sick or hurt to move) are left where they lie to die. Millions of prairie dogs and predators are killed to prevent competition with grazing cows and sheep. This is the pain and misery contained in every bite of meat we eat. How can God bless this consumption of these brutalized creatures?
Mrs. White is extremely specific about this. A few of her many clear
statements include: “Not an ounce of flesh meat should enter our stomachs
Fishing fleets push sea creature populations to the brink of collapse. Besides the cruelty to the fish, many whales, dolphins, and birds are killed both accidentally and purposely. As with meat, every time we buy a meal of fish or seafood we become responsible for the cruelty inflicted on our behalf. Every person that stops eating animals directly reduces the number of animals being killed, since the killers only supply what we will buy.
This is also true with animals killed for fashion. When we buy clothing or items made from animals, another animal is killed to fill the space on the shelf, so we cannot use the excuse that they're already dead. In the wild, traps are set that catch anything that touches them, keeping the trapped animals in agony until the trapper arrives to brutally kill them. In captivity, animals are imprisoned in tiny cages unprotected from weather extremes until the day they are killed in the cheapest way available. Fur coats (or just the trim), snakeskin boots, alligator wallets, ivory jewelry, and many more, are nothing but status symbols in our appearance-driven culture. Would Jesus of Nazareth, who lived simply His entire life, approve of paying huge amounts of money for clothing we don't need except to satisfy our vanity?
Throughout history people hunted and fished for food, but today we do it for sport. Many hunted animals are only wounded and may never recover. Family groups are ripped apart and lives are painfully ended to become a trophy or a bragged-about story. Fish feel as much pain as every other vertebrate animal and suffer terribly from hooks in their mouths and from suffocating out of water. Hooked fish often can't eat until their wounds heal, and studies show that, even when released, many fish eventually die in connection with the original injury. So long as we kill living beings because we're more powerful, and it's “fun,” we fall far short of Jesus' example of caring for the weak and helpless. Incidentally, neither Jesus nor His disciples ever fished for sport.
Indirect Results
Many of our actions, while not directly resulting in the death of an animal, do so indirectly by supporting economically a system that results in pain and death to the animals involved. Most animal abuse exists only because it's profitable. When people stop giving money to the abusers, the suffering and death will stop.
When we buy eggs we support the conditions in which they are produced. Hens are crammed together into tiny cages with no room to move. Their beaks are cut off to prevent them from pecking each other. They develop raw wounds from rubbing against the cages, and diseases from the foul air and surroundings. It is fair to say that no animal is more abused on the planet in such numbers as are egg-laying hens, and each hen is an individual with feelings and her own personality.
Similarly, the dairy industry imprisons cows in a never-ending cycle of being impregnated, giving birth, and having their day-old calves taken from them. Male babies are sent to veal stalls and fed nutrient-deficient food to keep their flesh the right color, and they are prevented from moving to keep it soft. We support this when we buy any dairy products.
Animals used to entertain us are usually forced against their will. Circus animals are routinely beaten to make them do their tricks. Rodeos regularly involve pain and fear. Most greyhounds never survive long enough to race because breeders only keep the fastest. There is little that is spiritually uplifting about these “attractions” anyway.
The love of Jesus was freely given to all around Him. Can we say the same when we abandon our companion animals because we are tired of them or they have become inconvenient? When we dump them somewhere, they almost never survive, and most in animal shelters never find a new home in time to avoid death row. There are far too many dogs and cats because many people do not spay or neuter their pets and they let repeated litters glut the world with unwanted, unloved, disposable beings. Then when we get new ones from a pet store, we support mass breeding by filthy puppy mills. All companion animals are a lifelong commitment; they depend on us their whole life.
Exotic pets we see in stores (like tropical fish and parrots) are often the only survivors of a long process in which 90-95% die on the way to the pet store. Our purchase makes the other ten or twenty deaths profitable enough to continue the cycle until there are none left in the wild to take.
Students can save many lives by choosing to use the thousands of non-animal alternatives to dissection. Studies have shown that they learn as well or better with non-animal methods anyway. By refusing to dissect, they stop the destruction of wild frog populations, the stealing of pets by unethical animal suppliers, and the slow and painful death that is often the norm in supply houses.
Many household products such as cosmetics and detergents are tested on animals in painful, lethal experiments. Many liquids are poured into rabbits' eyes to see how much damage is done; other toxic substances are rubbed onto bare skin or force-fed until they cause death. These tests do not help the consumer because they are done solely for a company's own self-interest, but no law requires these gruesome tests! Over 600 companies have promised never to use animal tests. So long as we continue to buy products from animal abusers, they will not have any incentive to change. Our God-given duty of stewardship of His money isn't served by paying it to companies that use agonizingly unnecessary tests.
Education
The final area where we can fulfill our dominion responsibility is in educating ourselves and others of what is being done to animals in our society. Abuse thrives on secrecy. God's nature of truth and justice never lies or tries to hide reality behind emotionally pleasing euphemisms. We cannot say something is not our problem when by inaction we allow it to continue.
The most hidden of abuses is medical research. Behind closed doors horrible things are done to every kind of animal. The public believes that research is to save human lives, but this is rarely the case. Most tests are done in an endless process of securing further funding to maintain the researcher's livelihood. Tests are relentlessly repeated with only minor variations that show nothing new. The results obtained are different with every kind of animal used, since every species reacts differently to every product. Thus even a test done on a mouse cannot be guaranteed to help a human. This is why the miracle cures we hear about on the news end up being forgotten when they don't work on people. Only clinical human tests using volunteers reveal how substances affect us, making irrelevant everything done before.
The animals pay for this inefficiency with their lives. In tiny cages they sit in the dark between painful tests. They have no normal interactions, and many develop mental problems that lead to insanity. Chimpanzees infected with contagious diseases are isolated in boxes from which they can never be released, even if they live 50 years. Baby monkeys are isolated in dark pits or given to mechanical “mothers” that hurt them until they go crazy. Repetitive tests are performed using electric shock on every type of animal. Finding out how dogs react to being shocked and the lengths they will go to avoid it, does not in any way benefit people, and it's certainly not of benefit to dogs.
Our thoughtlessness in caring for the animal creation is seen in the list of over 1000 endangered species. This does not include hundreds of species already extinct, such as the 25% of all bird species destroyed in the last 200 years.
In our daily interactions with the natural world we often kill animals we don't like. Our inherited beliefs about animals are often untrue. We fear and hate what we don't understand. Once an animal is judged ugly, we usually think of it as “bad” and give it no consideration. Snakes and spiders and bats become pests to be destroyed when in reality they are some of the most important animals in keeping rodent and insect populations in control. All predators are considered evil, but without them their prey becomes too numerous and runs out of food. Never ask what an animal is “good for” because usually our knowledge is so limited that we have little understanding of nature's complexity. The real question is how does God want them to be? He's the One who made them for His world. We must throw away the myths and understand animals for what they really are: thinking, feeling, unique creations of God, each having a place in His plan.
Conclusion
How we treat those weaker than ourselves reveals our true nature. When we have power over others we display who has power over us. Satan's nature destroys and causes pain. Christ's nature ends suffering and protects the helpless. So long as we participate in and allow cruel practices which hurt animals unnecessarily, we will forever come short of Christ's admonition, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect.” We cannot reflect the character of God while tainted with such cruelty.
With Jesus' second coming fast approaching, we need to let His love and compassion live in all areas of our lives. Whether our faith is just a theory or a living connection with God will be felt by the people and animals around us. We will never end human or animal abuse while Satan has power in this world, but it is our Christian duty to not be part of actions that harm others. Only then will we fully reflect the love that Christ's nature represents and be ready for Him to claim us as His own.
As Mrs. White said, “Few realize as they should the sinfulness of abusing animals or leaving them to suffer from neglect
The animals' lives are in our hands. May we allow that day to come quickly when the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:9).
AN IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT BY THE AUTHOR
Right now we have an important and unique opportunity. We as Adventists are always looking for ways to reach out to non-Christians with the good news of the true gospel. But some facets of our society have been very difficult to witness to with our traditional methods. In order to be most effective we need to tailor our efforts to those that we are trying to reach, as long as we maintain the truth of our message without worldly methods corrupting our efforts. One of these unreached groups are those that care about animals and are trying to stop the cruelty. They have been alienated by the attitudes they have seen displayed by professed “Christians” toward helping animals.
The mainstream church has, throughout history, supported virtually every form of animal abuse. Conservative Christians are among the most fanatical, unapologetic meat eaters and give birth to such groups as “Bow Hunters for Christ” and other abominations. People who love animals see this sort of nonsense and assume that if that is what it means to be Christian, then they want no part of such a religion. What they don't realize is that it is never safe to look to the people representing Christ without looking to the Bible to see if these Christians are faithful and true followers.
What we hope to do is show that caring for animals is part of the essential teachings of the Bible; that those that abuse animals and claim to be following Christ are no more representative of the teaching of Jesus than the practice of slave owners 150 years ago. By grounding the truth of stewardship of God's animals in the Bible itself, we will form a bridge to non-Christians that we can use to get them to look at Christianity afresh and hopefully draw them to Christ. When they see an evangelist telling fishing stories or disdaining efforts to help animals they will immediately be turned away, often irreparably. Instead we want to reach them by showing them that we are closer than they think and that there is a better way than the spiritualism of eastern religions or the hollowness of atheism.
To do this we have written a book to be used as a witnessing tool to these groups, the above article being a greatly condensed version of it. The book has been tailored with a non-Christian audience in mind, and we plan for it to be used to bring our faith to an audience that Adventism has been ineffective in reaching so far. We need to reach as many people as possible in these closing hours of Earth's history and cannot afford to ignore any group because they are “different” than ourselves. Some of the best and most committed Adventists I know have come out of such groups and we need more like them with their dedication and compassion.
The book has been written and we are in the final stages of cover design and other last details. The main requirement left is the cost of printing. We have raised part of what we need but have not reached our goal yet. Any financial help will be greatly appreciated. All donations will go to the book printing cost as all involved are volunteers. All gifts are tax-deductible as this is being done by QUO VADIS, the non-profit group that puts out the Adventist magazine of the same name. We solicit your help at this time so that we may proceed to make the book available as soon as possible. Souls are being lost that we have the ability to reach if we will make the effort.
If you are able to assist in this project, please make out your donation to Quo Vadis and send it to:
Quo Vadis
PO Box 11423
San Bernardino, CA 92423
Also, if anyone is interested, the above article is also available in sermon form on audio tape for Adventists. The audio presentation is considerably expanded and includes many additional statements of Mrs. White on this subject. A tape can be ordered $3.50 each (includes shipping) from the following address:
Matthew Priebe
14069 S. Lincoln Way
Galt, CA 95632
Thank you for all your support and may we all do God's will as we spread His present truth. —MP
For those who feel that the above article is too incomplete at times, you are absolutely correct. The article is a shortened form of a much longer presentation that can be found at http://www.dennispriebe.com. For anyone who wants a more thourough treatment or a clarification of some specific point I recommend examining the longer version. Also some have expressed interest in reaching me by e-mail. Unfortunately I do not own a computer that has internet access and so the only way to contact me is the above address.
Updated 24 September 2003
