Animals and Us: Creation
Corner Column for November 2016
Because all creatures are connected,
each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures
are dependent on one another.
Pope Francis
We all, no doubt, consider ourselves
as "humane." Over a hundred years ago, after the socialist
newspaper "Appeal To Reason" published Upton Sinclair's The
Jungle, a public outcry over the horrid meat-packing industry practices,
for laboring workers and the meat-processing, led Congress to pass the 1906
Meat Inspection Act.
In 2016 an international outcry took
place over the killing of a protected African lion, Cecil, in Zimbabwe.
We do have moral/ethical
concerns. But do we compartmentalize them away from our consumer
habits? Might we be "positioning ourselves as consumers first and
moral beings either second or not at all?", asks George Monbiot in a
recent (Sept. 23-29) article in The Guardian Weekly. Might the
feared extinction of species be "simply the consequence of our
uncontrolled consumerism"?
So we need to ask ourselves: Might we
tread more lightly on God's earth? Eat less (or no) meat? Question
"factory farms"? Refrain from big game trophy hunting, and
wearing furs. Can we speak up about the importation and sale of
endangered species parts, often secured from poaching?
Are there groups worth your
supporting---Christian Vegetarian Association, the Humane Society of the United
States (HSUS has a Faith Advisory Council), the ASPCA, PETA, etc.?
For a recent view of the theology of
animals see the July issue of Sojourners (sojo.net).
To understand what less animal
cruelty means, read Wayne Pacelle's The Humane Economy.
Re: animal rights, see the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM.org).
Also see the Animal Legal Defense
Fund (ALDF.org). ALDF has an Animal Bill of Rights petition to the U.S.
Congress. The preamble notes our belief that animals, like all sentient
beings, are entitled to basic legal rights in our society. Deprived of
legal protection, animals are defenseless against exploitation and abuse by
humans. As few rights now exist, legislation could be passed in support
of the following basic rights for animals:
The right of
...animals to be free from
exploitation, cruelty, neglect, and abuse;
...companion animals to a healthy
diet, protective shelter, and adequate medical care;
...wildlife to a natural habitat,
ecologically sufficient to a normal existence and a self-sustaining species
population;
...animals to be free from cruel and
unnecessary experimentation and testing;
...animals to have their interests
represented in court and safeguarded by the law of the land.
Internationally, there is an effort
on behalf of non-human animal rights, represented in the western hemisphere by
AFADA (the Spanish acronym for the Association of Officials and Lawyers for
Animal Rights), and, in the U.S. by the Nonhuman Rights Project.
Extending the status of "personhood" to sentient beings, non-humans,
such as apes, is a goal, as reported in "The Battle for the Great
Apes" cover story by George Johnson in the Nov./Dec. issue of Pacific
Standard (psmag.com) . Just as corporations have "been
considered 'juridical' or 'artificial' persons with some of the rights and
obligations of people" (being able to 'sue and be sued and have rights to
free speech as in Citizens United'), religious expression has also been
considered a right of corporations, as in the Hobby Lobby case.
So animals, as nature itself, both
long-regarded as "things", are now being recognized as being bearers
of legal rights, albeit limited. Of course there are century-old animal
welfare laws and ordinances, but have they been enough? Stay tuned
in. The law evolves. Slaves were once considered possessions, then
came abolition and emancipation. Less than a century ago in the U.S.,
women gained the right to vote. While non-human species have no capacity
to argue for themselves, might Homo sapiens do it for them?
"One
touch of nature makes the whole world kin." William Shakespeare
Mr. Ochs initiated and then co-led
October weekly sessions in the Williamsport PA area Lutheran School of
Religion, sponsored by the Lutheran Shared Ministry https://www.facebook.com/LSMLutheranSharedMinistry/.
Course materials were the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's
"Awakening to God's Call to Earthkeeping" http://www.elca.org/en/Resources/Caring-for-Creation
.
