All I can tell you is that each morning, there’s a particular bird that appears to take great joy in admiring himself in the side-view mirrors of my car and then leaving proof that he was there. The Old Colonel is not amused.
Yes, they have emotions. Anyone who has had an animal and watched them go through happy, unhappy, angry, and even grief when they lose another animal to whom they bonded, knows this.
The Catholic Church teaches that animals do not have souls like humans. Animals cannot commit sin and thus do not have to worry about salvation like humans do. When an animal dies, I trust our loving God to take care of the animal, as Scripture contains several references to God providing for animal creatures.
Here is a Catholic Answers source on animals and their souls (which are not the same as human souls).
(The part about no “doggie heaven” is debatable in view of several statements by Popes on both sides of the issue. However, animals going to heaven is one of those hot button topics on CAF, and I am not going to re-open the topic for the one hundredth discussion on this.)
it is a good idea to be as humane to animals as we can be, because we are respecting God’s creation and being kind. However, I’m not in a position to judge specific laws, and I am not familiar with whatever the “Humane Slaughter Act” is. Some people pushing animal rights or animal welfare do more harm than good.
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