Theological Reflection on the human use of animals

The universe is created by God. It is not merely "nature". It belongs to God, not human beings. Because God created them, animals have intrinsic value. They exist first of all in relation to God, before any considerations of their value and use to humans. Humans, however, have a special place, being both a part of creation and also over it. Humans are uniquely the bearers of God's image. Two expressions of the relationship are found in the opening chapters of Genesis. For centuries the emphasis was in strong terms of dominion or subduing from Genesis 1. In recent years belated recognition of the environmental damage we have caused has led to a recovery of second picture, in the gentler language of working and caring for a garden.

The relationship of humans to God's creation has been expressed most often in Calvin's notion of the steward. God gives humans a special duty both to develop the natural world - and hence the use of technology - but also to take care of it - which puts limits on our activities. Stewardship means that humankind is answerable not merely to future human generations, but to God, the divine owner, for how we have looked after his estate. Alongside this Ruth Page introduced the notion of companionship, to reflect that we are also fellow creatures in a shared creation.Thus while God puts animals under human subjugation for a wide variety of uses, they are still God's creatures first, and humans will have to give an account to God for their care of them. Old Testament injunctions such as "Do not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain", "Do not boil a kid goat in its mother's milk." (Deuteronomy 25:4 and 14:21) imply that wider principles of relationship set restraints on human uses.

This contrasts with historical views of animals as merely there for human purposes. or the view that they are not radically different from us scientifically or morally. Aspects and characteristics which human and animal hold in common, like both being creatures, being "subjects of a life" or being sentient, do not mean that humans cannot eat animals or use them for traction and carriage. The notion of animal "rights" is criticised because in a Christian understanding there are no rights without corresponding responsibilities, and animals do not have responsibilities towards humans it is meaningless to give them rights.Rather we would stress our duties towards them under God.

Commercial animal production by selective breeding would be allowed, but not to every degree possible. Limits are exceeded when this is taken as an end in itself, or if it becomes so dominated by a functional view of the animal under pressures of economic efficiency that wider principles of God's creation are overridden. The case of poultry production has shown that when taken to such degrees that harms, distortions, disablement or impairment of function begin to emerge, a good end would have been taken too far.