Have We Gone Pet Crazy?

Although I've always had pets myself, it seems that we've gone pet crazy today. It is difficult to differentiate the love and compassion that some people have for their pets vs. that for their own children. We spend billions on our pets, including health care, pet insurance, and even auto-injury insurance. Some pets even received the H1N1 vaccination when many high-risk humans hadn't yet received it.

Animal activists are concerned about the methods of animal euthanasia, when a dog pound become over-crowded. On one episode of "Grey's Anatomy," surgeons used body parts from pigs in order to correct ailments in humans, then the story centered on a heart-broken doctor who had to kill the pigs after they had served their purpose.

People were outraged with Michael Vick, and rightly so. However, when he was convicted, most of their concern was about his cruelty to animals instead of his involvement in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring. Even after he had paid his debt to society by serving 18 months in prison, people wanted him banned from professional sports.

A recent news story in Dallas reported on an intruder who had burglarized a house and stole the family dog. The reporter ended the report by commenting that the dog was "...the only thing they really valued." That statement seems a bit extreme.

Genesis 1 tells us that we are to fill the earth, subdue it, and rule over the animal kingdom. Does this give us the right to be cruel to animals? Of course not. This is obvious from the many other Bible verses that command us to be compassionate and good stewards of all that God has given us. Of course it's wrong to abuse animals. However, our priorities have become unbalanced. There's a certain television commercial by a humane society that shows abused animals, and asks for donations to help stop animal abuse. Aren't there more pressing (human) issues where these millions of dollars could be spent?

Another television news report told about animal abuse' at a pig farm. Pregnant pigs were being housed in small pens. Well, farmers have always kept pigs in small pens. This simply an economic choice so that we Americans can continue buying pork at reasonable prices, and this does not not constitute animal abuse.

We just need to keep things in perspective. We have to be reasonable, especially since our pets don't have the intelligence to do so. We should first be more concerned about human abuse before animal abuse. After all, what is worse: to keep pregnant pigs in a small pen, or to torture and kill human children by aborting them from a pregnant human mother?