Want to read a good dog story? Read “Bar Sinister” by Richard Harding Davis. It’s good because it’s about people who abuse animals versus those who use them. PETA doesn’t abuse animals, but people.
Every dog I’ve ever owned or my mother had while growing up hated fireworks. PETA must really think that taking an ad out in a national publication – this was in the July 2024 Harper’s – will do something. I don’t think so. I think this is virtue signaling. This is making you feel guilty for not only abusing animals but even using them.
Proverbs 12:10 (NASB77) says, “A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast, But the compassion of the wicked is cruel”. And Proverbs 12:27 (NASB77) tells us, “A slothful man does not roast his prey, But the precious possession of a man is diligence.” And we know the God who was concerned not only for all the little children in pagan Nineveh who didn’t know their right hand from their left but also for the many animals there.
Scripture is consistently in favor of animal ownership, use, and even hunting them (the ‘prey’). Furthermore, not one of these is an abuse of them. Disney has given us the idyllic picture of a wise old owl, deer, lion, etc., living to a ripe old age and never picked off by a hunter.
And that hunter is made to laugh at. It was Warner Brothers not Disney who gave us Elmer Fudd, already in 1937. And funny he is. But it is not at all funny what happens to animals that age out. If disease, car, coyote, or wolf doesn’t get an old deer, its teeth ground down so he can’t eat and starves to death.
We who regard God’s Word the way the prophets, Paul, and Jesus Himself did as authoritative, accurate, and revelatory read Genesis 1:29, “Then God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;'” and say, Oh that’s how it was before the Fall into sin, death, and devil. Eden was indeed idyllic.
But weren’t not in Eden anymore fellow travelers. Different rules apply. After the world’s great reset, the Flood, after starting over with none but the Promised Seed and the Church, the pre-Flood evil that the Lord identified in Genesis 6:5: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” was still there on the other side of the reset as Genesis 8:21 reveals: “the LORD said to Himself, ‘I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.'”
Only fools and liberals believe that the same “rules” apply in a fallen world as in idyllic Eden. God is no fool and only liberal in grace, giving, and probably grieving. He reveals after the Flood in Genesis 9:2-3 “‘And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.'”
It seems to me, based on my limited observation, that the animal loving crowd above all else has to appear loving, merciful, kind, God-like and not at all like Cruella de Vil. Who could ever want to make beautiful dalmatian fur into a coat? (Even that was beyond me till a dalmatian made a habit of charging me.) But I digress. I wanted to note that they want to appear caring. I base this on the fact that I’ve watched many of them dutifully pick up their dog poop only to surreptitiously litter it a block away, and I’ve found many more piles of plastic-encased poop behind electrical, cable, or phone boxes.
One day coming out of the woods, I was about 60, a guy I knew turned off his tractor and said, “Pastor, I think when our generation is gone this world is going to again be overrun with animals.” Think that’s a little too much? Do a search on coyotes in California. They are protected cannot be harassed let alone hunted, and they are winning. Even better read Deuteronomy 7:22, “And the LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.” We have no fear of this happening here.
When I was growing up in the 60s and accompanying my father to the grocery store, while standing in line he would, and many others too, toss his lit cigarette on the floor of the store and grind it out with the toe of his shoe. You can’t light up let alone put out in any store anywhere in these United States. That’s barbaric, that’s unhealthy, that’s dangerous.
But you can bring your dog – whether or not its officially a service, therapy, or emotional support animal – into most places. In the 60s that would have been barbaric, unhealthy, dangerous and just plain ridiculous. Ah, but this was before babies could be willfully murdered in the womb and marriage was redefined. This was before not only morality was denied but reality.
