Responsibility Towards Animals
An article in the March 2008 edition of National Geographic indicates that tame, wild or endangered animals do think. For pet owners and most of us who have been associated with animals (vets or farmers), this should not be a revelation.
The experiments that Morell quote in her article were conducted among mammals (the usual suspects), birds and even fish and octopus. Most of us would never have expected that non-mammals have any sort of intelligence and this article dispels any such notion.
Morell states in her article, “….we should blush for ever having thought any animal a mere machine.” There are definitely many of among us who treat animals as any inanimate property to be exploited inhumanely.
In Genesis, God commanded us to have dominion over the Earth. The word “dominion” has been misinterpreted to mean “exploit mercilessly” by unscrupulous people. The true Christian understanding is that we are stewards of the the Earth, which actually belongs to God, not to us!
Stewards are responsible people, not sadistic fools.
The job of a steward is not just as watchman, but to nurture and develop what God has given us in a responsible way. This responsibility definitely does not include creating animal-human hybrid embryos as Britain has claimed to have achieved. These chimeras can considered as pet insurance against malfunction of human organs.
God made animals to serve humans as a pet or work animal or simply to be appreciated by watching and hearing them.
