Lunacy in the Name of Compassion

A Catholic Bishop Responds to Animal Rights Nazis
The original article from zenit.org (link may expire quickly) includes some really appalling examples of terrorism and extortion.

“Darley Oaks farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, announced plans to stop breeding guinea pigs after ceding to a six-year campaign of intimidation, the BBC reported Aug. 23. One of the more recent acts that spurred the decision was the theft of the body of a family member from the local churchyard last October. Over the years the owners of the farm, the Hall family, have been the target of harassing phone calls, bomb scares, and arson attacks. Local shops and businesses have also been targeted, to force them to cancel any commerce with the farm.”

That is beyond anything my warped mind would even be able to imagine. Personally, I love critters – everything from sponges to schnauzers. I usually won’t even kill the scorpion on the bedspread – I just chuck it out the door. It probably goes with my original training as a biologist. Irrational people-hating Luddite lunatics Animal Rights Activists and their Hunnish tactics, on the other hand, are the natural outgrowth of a worldview that rejects any transcendence in the human person. If humans are powerful animals with no externally-mandated divine purpose, then – if I prefer the company of guinea pigs – there is no logical reason why I should not destroy human life to protect guinea pig life. It is merely the culture of abortion taken to its logical conclusion. The Church’s position is, to say the least, a bit more reasoned and nuanced.

“Earlier this year Archbishop Carlo Caffarra, of Bologna, Italy, entered the debate over the relationship between animals and humans. In a speech Jan. 15 before the school of veterinarian medicine at the University of Bologna, he argued that it is essential to keep in mind the "essential diversity" between man and animals. The human person, unlike animals, has a spiritual life based on the soul and should not be reduced to the level of the natural world that surrounds us. This does not mean we have nothing in common with animals, the archbishop explained. Rather, what we have in common with animals is not all that makes us a person, he said. This superiority justifies the use of animals by humans, the prelate said. At the same time, he acknowledged that animals are also creatures of God and that our dominion over them should not be violent. This does not mean, however, that animals have rights. Rights are something that should be reserved for the category of relationships between people. Rather than basing our behavior toward animals on the concept of rights, we should found it on the rationality of the human person, Archbishop Caffarra argued. We owe it to ourselves as humans, he said, to act reasonably in our relations with animals.”

To a Christian, humans are given stewardship over the earth and its living and non-living resources. I am responsible to God for how I treat both my neighbor and my dog. The difference is that I am also responsible to my neighbor for how I treat him; I am not, however, responsible to my dog.