Are pets Biblical?

[handy]

I came across this on the web, and truly, I cannot tell if this is a sincere essay or the writer has tongue firmly planted in cheek here:

http://dbhome.dk/carlo/cat.htm

However, let's discuss. Should Christians own cats or even any kind of pet? I'm not speaking of working pets, such as the cattle dogs, or seeing eye dogs, or therapy cats (dogs get too much good press). I'm speaking of lazy, good-for-nothing-but-love, couch potato pets who cost us well earned money for kitty litter and flea collars.

What are your thoughts.

My own, I would say no, except that Mr. Mitten's, Snowball, Boo-Boo, Salem and Antony the dog, would attack if I did so. They keep an eye on me, I can't post without one of them here. They're in it together I know!

 

[Blazin Bones]

Does it help at all that God allowed Adam to name the Animals in the Garden? Genesis 2:19 for those wondering says that God brought the animals to Adam and whatever he named them, God allowed them to be called such. Not to mention that God also later told adam that he had dominion over the earth to subdue it. I guess subdueing animals would qualify, but what does everyone else think?

 

[MISFIT]

I'm not a pet kind of guy, so I guess I'm good either way. :-D

 

[Joshua]

That guys essay was pretty funny. While I don't like cats myself, he REALLY doesn't like cats. That's a lot of writing just to keep a cat out of the house.

However, I see no reason not to have pets. There sure is no biblical reason not to have pets.

 

[A-Christian]

I'm not speaking of working pets, such as the cattle dogs, or seeing eye dogs, or therapy cats (dogs get too much good press). I'm speaking of lazy, good-for-nothing-but-love, couch potato pets who cost us well earned money for kitty litter and flea collars.

What are your thoughts.

I would say that the lazy good-for-nothing-but-love pets do provide a service for their owners.
Below is from the Humane Society's website:

Many of us enjoy the companionship of pets. In fact, according to a 2008 survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, 63 percent of American households include pets. These animals don't ask for muchâ€â€just a short list of basics such as food, shelter, veterinary care, and, of course, our companionship. Pets offer far more in return, teaching us about love, improving our emotional and physical health, and providing us with unconditional affection and friendship.

Pets Make Good Teachers

Companion animals are natural teachers. They help people of all ages learn about responsibility, loyalty, empathy, sharing, and unconditional loveâ€â€qualities particularly essential to a child's healthy development.

Through helping to care for a pet, children also learn to care for their fellow human beings. There is an established link between how people treat animals and how they treat each other. Kindness to animals is a lesson that benefits people, too.

Pets Can Be Therapists

Given the right animal, people, and circumstances, pets can indeed serve as "therapists." In animal-assisted therapy programs, a companion animal may visit with hospital or nursing home patients. For the program to be safe and effective, the animal must be carefully screened and the pet's caregiver must be trained to guide the animal-human interactions. When a specific therapy is desired, a credentialed professional should monitor the program. Even in less formal animal-assisted activities, where the animal is introduced to an individual or group with no specific therapeutic goal, patients and staff often experience improved morale and communication.

Pets Can Serve as Helpers

Specially trained assistance dogs provide people who have physical and mental disabilities with the profound gift of independence. Assistance dogs are not classified as pets under the law, and they are allowed in public places where pets are prohibited. These dogs serve as the hands, ears, or eyes of their human partners and assist them by performing everyday tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. Dogs may also detect changes in behavior, body language, or odor that precede seizures in their human partners, alerting them so that they may seek a safe environment.

Pets Can Be Healers

Pets are good for our emotional and physical health. Caring for a companion animal can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment and lessen feelings of loneliness and isolation in all age groups. It's well known that relaxed, happy people do not become ill as often as those who suffer from stress and depression.

Animal companionship also helps lower a person's blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And studies show that having a dog increases survival rates in groups of patients who have suffered cardiac arrest. Dog walking, pet grooming, and even petting provide increased physical activity that strengthens the heart, improves blood circulation, and slows the loss of bone tissue. Put simply, pets aren't just good friends, they are good medicine.

Can Pets Benefit the Elderly?

Because many Americans are living longer lives these days, sometimes elderly people find themselves living alone because they have outlived loved ones, or because they live far from any family. There is a way, however, for the elderly to find new meaning in their lives, and to redefine what it means to be "young at heart"â€â€by adopting a companion animal from a local shelter.

We already know that the many physical benefits pets confer onto people work for all ages, whether you're eight or eighty. If you're older, a pet can offer you a sense of well being, a sense of encouragement, and even a reason for living. Being responsible for another life can add new meaning to your own life, and having to care for and provide a loving home to a companion animal can also help you remain active and healthy.

You may want to consider adopting an older animal, however, rather than a puppy or kitten or a rambunctious "teenage" pet. Older pets are move likely to be calm, already housetrained, and less susceptible to unpredictable behavior. Older animals are often more easily physically managed by elderly persons than stronger, excitable younger animals; yet older pets still confer the same medical and emotional benefits on their owners as younger animals do. Animal shelter staff can help potential adopters find the most suitable animal for their lifestyle, ensuring a great match between pet and person.

 

[Drew]

I think that having pets is indeed "Biblical".

We have lost our way a bit in modern North American Christianity. Many people see the scriptures as basically being about "me" and how I get saved while the rest of the world - the mountains, the trees, and the kitties, and the puppies - is going to be burned to a crisp.

Well the scriptures do not teach this. They teach that all of God's creation is to be redeemed and transformed: all things will be brought together in Christ.

Why am I saying all this in a thread about pets. Well, consider this from Romans 8:

19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

God is going to redeem the world and all its "stuff" - animals included. And, exactly as in the Garden of Eden, men are going to be running the show.

This means that having a pet is the perfect "practice" for what it is to come - a world where, as God initially intended, human beings are in charge of His precious creation.

 

[handy]

I agree, Drew! I do think that pets will be with us in Paradise and on the new earth. And, although I know it's a bit controversial (and a topic for a different discussion) I think not only will animals be there, but our animals, the ones we now have will be.

It's a little hard to imagine, because it's totally against what we have always experienced here on earth, but we'll be able to live in perfect harmony with all the animals then. I know my husband is truly looking forward to this. As of now, I've had to talk him out of getting a pet: elk, cougar, grizzley bear, buck, and rattlesnake. I have not talked him out of the bull snake or the boa constrictor. The others, well they would just cost way too much to feed. But, then, we can (and probably will, knowing my hubby) have them.

I've never thought of having pets as a primer course for our care of the animals in the new earth, but it makes perfect sense.