Animals: Love ‘Em Or Kill ‘Em

okay okay… those aren’t the only two options. RLP recently wrote some musings on his family and pets, A Rattlesnake and a Honking Dog, that got me thinking. I’ve already blogged somewhat about my relationship with animals. I totally feel Gordon’s pain though. The fall semester my wife had to put our cat to sleep while I was away at a conference. It was a rough time, but it was too much for us to pay a vet to keep her alive for what amounted to a miserable existence. I know other people disagree. Some people are willing to pay small fortunes to keep their pets going. I’m not going to argue with the deep pet love that some people have.

It does raise the question, “How much should you (or would you) pay to keep your pet’s ticker ticking?”

I know what you’re thinking, “What the heck does this have to do with food or Jesus?” Well, when we think about food the subject of eating animals and vegetarianism is always in the mix. Perhaps before we even approach vegetarianism we should be asking ourselves how we relate to animals. What place do animals have in our lives? Why are some animals considered pets worth shelling out big bucks to save and others just left to wade in their own s#!@? Why are some animals okay to eat and others not?

We’re almost there in Genesis, too. So we might be talking about the animals for a while. By the end of it we might go all Francis of Asissi, preach to the animals and see some birds pray the prayer and give their lives to Jesus. Who knows?