Getting angry at/hating an animal

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StTommyMore said:
You seem to think animals have the same dignity as persons, which they do not.
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Read my posts again and tell me how you got this information (which again is not relevant to what im saying). I was responding to very specific statements made by you and others.

I stand by what I say. We have a right to love animals within reason without someone telling us that we are sinning, and the same goes with disliking animals.

To the OP, depending on the whole situation, in the short term I would advise you to stay away from the animal in question in case your anger makes you do something you regret, and if you feel it is something which is taking over your life, then seek help. The thing about being angry with an animal is that you cannot confront it like you would a person.
 
JaneGrey said:
Read my posts again and tell me how you got this information (which again is not relevant to what im saying). I was responding to very specific statements made by you and others.

I stand by what I say. We have a right to love animals within reason without someone telling us that we are sinning, and the same goes with disliking animals.

To the OP, depending on the whole situation, in the short term I would advise you to stay away from the animal in question in case your anger makes you do something you regret, and if you feel it is something which is taking over your life, then seek help. The thing about being angry with an animal is that you cannot confront it like you would a person.
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And we in the karate cat kingdom, love you too! give me a hug you wonderful human! :hug1:
 
It’s my position that we are called to act humanely, which includes all living creatures. However, I am not ascribing eternal soul to animals but I believe we are obligated not to mistreat them, even if they are being raised for food.
 
JaneGrey said:
The way I see it, its ok and only ok to kill an animal if it will negatively affect your life in some way, however I always do this with a heavy heart. When I have to kill cockroaches or get rid of my dogs’ ticks, I say a prayer to God.
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How are your dog’s ticks affecting your life?

Consider this terrible purely hypothetical question: Would i be looked at funny by society if i kept a dog for the sole purpose of raising my colony of ticks? What kind of moral calculus needs to be done here?
 
Birdpreacher said:
How are your dog’s ticks affecting your life?

Consider this terrible purely hypothetical question: Would i be looked at funny by society if i kept a dog for the sole purpose of raising my colony of ticks? What kind of moral calculus needs to be done here?
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Seriously? Alot of itching, which while trivial in itself would come to affect my social life after a while, in turn affecting employment etc etc. Also I dont reckon the neighbours would appreciate the new species on their own beloved furballs.

Your second question: Yes you would be looked funny, but I would argue that as long as are responsible about the whole endeavour, and your colony does not colonise the whole neighbourhood, then you would be perfectly within your rights HOWEVER im no vet and i cant say anything about how humane it would be for the dogs long term. There must be other ways of raising ticks, if you were hypothetically inclined to do so. People raise blood-sucking insects without using mammals.🙂
 
Soldier_Of_God said:
Well, I wasn’t really thinking about cats as food but, hey, if that floats your boat. I’m more of a ‘eating cow’ sort of person.
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mmmmm Cow. If god had not had intended us to eat animals, why did he make them so tasty?
 
JaneGrey said:
Seriously? Alot of itching, which while trivial in itself would come to affect my social life after a while, in turn affecting employment etc etc. Also I dont reckon the neighbours would appreciate the new species on their own beloved furballs.

Your second question: Yes you would be looked funny, but I would argue that as long as are responsible about the whole endeavour, and your colony does not colonise the whole neighbourhood, then you would be perfectly within your rights HOWEVER im no vet and i cant say anything about how humane it would be for the dogs long term. There must be other ways of raising ticks, if you were hypothetically inclined to do so. People raise blood-sucking insects without using mammals.🙂
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well said 🙂
 
StTommyMore said:
mmmmm Cow. If god had not had intended us to eat animals, why did he make them so tasty?
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I have one - if God wanted me to cook, why did He invent restaurants? 😛

By the way, us humans are made of tasty meat as well apparently - cannibals, lions, sharks, crocodiles etc seem to think so. (that was meant to be in jest, so lets please not have a heated debate about meat eating here just this once)
 
I think the 22nd chapter of Numbers has some interesting things to say about animals and anger.

When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it lay down under Balaam; and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and it said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’ Balaam said to the donkey, ‘Because you have made a fool of me! I wish I had a sword in my hand! I would kill you right now!’ But the donkey said to Balaam, ‘Am I not your donkey, which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I been in the habit of treating you in this way?’ And he said, ‘No.’ Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed down, falling on his face. The angel of the LORD said to him, ‘Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me, and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely I would by now have killed you and let it live.’ Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, ‘I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road to oppose me".

Note: this is taken from the NRSV, since when I tried to use the KJV I discovered that Catholic Answers apparently censors a certain more traditional term for donkey-kind. 😉
StTommyMore said:
Dolphins are things, not persons. Babies a persons, not things.
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Only humans are persons, yes, but both humans and dolphins together are creatures, as opposed to mere things.
StTommyMore said:
That being said, why is extermination of cute animals bad, but “ugly” ones good?
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It’s not about cuteness, but intelligence. A dolphin is far more akin to a human than an ant, both psychologically and, I daresay, spiritually.
 
Bran Stark;7827911 said:
creatures
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, as opposed to mere things.

Philosophically, everything is either a person or a thing. All things humans have stewardship over, whether it be a living thing or not.
 
The lord has given mankind stewardship over all the animals of the earth. I am therefore a steward of my animals and will protect them from abuse from humans and other animals with my being. This does not mean that I place them over human life just from mistreatment from any source. This is the same way that I look out for my children, or most people look out for their children or belongings.

To me stewardship equates to caring for and protection. If an animal threatens than measures must be taken. A cockroach threatens human health as does a tick or a fly, or a poisonous snake.

Is it wrong to protect public health? I would regret the action but nuturing and protection must prevail on an equal footing. You can’t do one without the other be it for an animal or a human.

The lord said that what we do for the least we do for him. Vice versa, what we do the least we would do to him. This is part of ethical treatment and consideration. How can we be ethical and mistreat someone or something that is defenseless and doing us no harm?
 
"One of the great things about being human is the ability to use our intelligence and reason to look beyond our ourselves and our own immediate desires and needs for survival. "

"You seem to think animals have the same dignity as persons, which they do not. "

Both of these quotes taken from different postings seem to me to get to the heart of this discussion thread. Human intelligence forms the basis of our survival in that it leads to our passing on both morality and ethics. Dignity is not solely a human trait or instinct. I have brought my dogs to a dog park and after watching them for awhile seem to think that they have a defined dignity. It doesn’t rise to our level but they have it.

Both of these postings brought back to mind a journal I read years ago where a gorilla was taught sign language as an experiment in animal intelligence. One of the thoughts that this gorilla signed back was “Don’t kill me”. At first I thought about the line of about monkeys and typewriters typing out Shakepeare’s works. But the article went on about the apparent conversations between animal and trainer. Somehow the thought of ascribing dignity to an animal becomes not to far stretched of an idea. Do they have dignity or a least a sense of dignity as we tend to believe in it? Where those animal researchers ascribing intelligence and human thought processes where it didn’t belong? Or was it an experiment that ran amok?:confused:

Please don’t think of me as a believer in PETA. These two thoughts by seperate posters opened up a line of questioning for me. Any thoughts???
 
Namwalker said:
"One of the great things about being human is the ability to use our intelligence and reason to look beyond our ourselves and our own immediate desires and needs for survival. "

"You seem to think animals have the same dignity as persons, which they do not. "

Both of these quotes taken from different postings seem to me to get to the heart of this discussion thread. Human intelligence forms the basis of our survival in that it leads to our passing on both morality and ethics. Dignity is not solely a human trait or instinct. I have brought my dogs to a dog park and after watching them for awhile seem to think that they have a defined dignity. It doesn’t rise to our level but they have it.

Both of these postings brought back to mind a journal I read years ago where a gorilla was taught sign language as an experiment in animal intelligence. One of the thoughts that this gorilla signed back was “Don’t kill me”. At first I thought about the line of about monkeys and typewriters typing out Shakepeare’s works. But the article went on about the apparent conversations between animal and trainer. Somehow the thought of ascribing dignity to an animal becomes not to far stretched of an idea. Do they have dignity or a least a sense of dignity as we tend to believe in it? Where those animal researchers ascribing intelligence and human thought processes where it didn’t belong? Or was it an experiment that ran amok?:confused:

Please don’t think of me as a believer in PETA. These two thoughts by seperate posters opened up a line of questioning for me. Any thoughts???
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I did not say that animals were devoid of dignity. All of God’s creation do have a sense of dignity. However the dignity of an animal is as far below humanity as humanity is below God. It is not measurable for its greatness.
 
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