Aborting Kittens

[tuffsmurf]

Yes of course, but I would argue that the difference mainly consists in the act of tormenting the animal before killing it. That is clearly immoral whether you plan to eat the animal or not.

 

[tuffsmurf]

Why is hunting for meat ok but not hunting to put antlers on the wall isn’t? Assuming that the animal is killed quickly in both cases. Both are things you do for your own enjoyment, since you don’t need to hunt for meat in order to survive.

 

[tuffsmurf]

I don’t think neutering pets should be done routinely. You ought to prevent your pet from breeding by supervising them rather then letting them roam freely. In many countries dogs are very rarely spayed or neutered, my family has only ever owned intact dogs of both genders.

 

[Pixle_Catholic]

I have spayed/nurtured all of my pets, not because of the convince of not having to monitor them, but because they really do suffer when they are in their “heat”. At least, all of the cats I’ve ever had suffer. It is very uncomfortable for them. Maybe it’s not true for all animals though…

 

[tuffsmurf]

Some female cats get stressed and start losing weight etc. when they are in heat. In that case I think spaying is just fine. Other cats don’t suffer though, so there is no reason to spay a kitten when you don’t even know if there will be any problems.

 

[FiveLinden]

Animals do not have souls

I thought the Catholic view is that all living thinks have souls, but that only humans have immortal souls. Have I got this wrong? And I’m not sure an egg you eat is ‘an unborn chicken’. And thank you for introducing me to the word ‘squicky’.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Someone did make the point that the egg isn’t fertilized in most cases, so I defer to the animal husbandry set on the chicken point. To me it still looks like a womb with the very basic non-balut beginnings of a chicken in it. But I guess that’s just me.

As for whether animals have “souls”, if you define “soul” as “The principle of life” as Catholic Answers does, then not only animals, but plants also, have souls; however, these souls are different from human souls in that they can’t determine right from wrong, don’t sin and don’t get judged upon death. I believe Thomas Aquinas taught that animals had some kind of rudimentary “soul” in the sense of life force, but that it wasn’t immortal and ceased to exist upon death.

Do Animals Have Souls like Human Beings? | Catholic Answers Q&A

However, in Catholic shorthand and popular non-philosophical discussion, the word “soul” is often, if not usually, meant to refer to the human immortal soul which can sin and gets judged. Therefore, one often sees the discussion about whether animals do or don’t have a soul, with the implied meaning of “soul” being immortal soul that would allow pets to go to Heaven.

Dogs in Heaven? Pope Francis Leaves Pearly Gates Open - The New York Times

…repudiation of conservative Roman Catholic theology that says animals cannot go to heaven because they have no souls.

http://www.dreamshore.net/rococo/pope.html

"The Pope has said, ‘Animals Too Have Souls, Just Like Men.’ "

So to be strictly correct, animals and plants do have some type of a soul if you take the word “soul” in the philosophical/ theological sense as referring to life created by God, but it’s not like a human soul. It may or may not be immortal, and even if they have some type of immortal soul that might allow one’s dog to go to Heaven, the dog still can’t commit sins on earth and will not be judged. Many people express this concept concisely by framing it as “whether animals have souls or not” meaning “whether animals have the type of souls that would permit them to have immortal life in Heaven or not.”