Be Kind To Animals

Be Kind To Animals

The command to be kind to animals, Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim in Hebrew, has many sources in the Torah and in later writings.  Here is a small sampling:

If, along the road, you chance upon a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs and the mother sitting over the fledglings or on the eggs, do not take the mother together with her young. Let the

mother go, and take only the young, in order that you may fare well and have a long life. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)

       Lest you cause pain to the mother who sees her young being taken away.

You shall not plow with an ox and an ass together. (Deuteronomy 22:10)

       Because the stronger animal will pull the weaker one and cause it harm.

And from the Talmud, Baba Metzia 85a:

Rabbi Judah the Prince was sitting and studying the Torah in front of the Synagogue in Sepphoris. A calf being taken to the slaughterhouse came to him as if pleasing, “Save me!” Rabbi Judah said to it, “What can I do for you? For this you were created.” As a punishment for his heartlessness, he suffered from a toothache for thirteen years. One day, a creeping thing ran past Rabbi Judah’s daughter who was about to kill it. He said to her, “My daughter, let it be, for it is written, and his tender mercies are over all his works (Psalm 145:9).” Because Rabbi Judah prevented an act of cruelty and unkindness to an animal, his health was restored.

The Shulchan Aruch, the central law code of Jewish life, states: It is forbidden, according to the law of the Torah, to inflict pain upon any living creature. On the contrary, it is our religious duty to relieve the pain of any creature…

Many of us look on our pets as members of our household – and so we are accustomed to take good care of them.

When you consider that such care is a mitzvah, a holy act, it raises the care to a higher level.  Seeing to the health and well-being of your pet teaches kindness for all creatures, models compassion which we owe to every human being and creature, and increases holiness in the world.  Here are some of the ways you can see to their care – all of them ways to use Jewish ethics in your daily life.

Since your animals are dependent on you, they come first.  Before you sit down for breakfast, see that they are cared for.  They need all the care and grooming in the morning that you need, so ask yourself –

       Do they need to be brushed or groomed in other ways

How do you take care of their bathroom needs – a walk for the dog, cleaning the cat’s litter, changing the bird’s paper, etc.

       Do they need fresh water

       Do they need food

       Do they need some petting, play and attention

Get your animal good health care.  You don’t like to feel bad with a fever, an ache, or the like – so be sure that your animal feels healthy.  Since your animal can’t tap you on the shoulder to say what hurts, you need to take the extra care to see that all is well. Good health care may include seeing that your dog or cat is spayed and neutered. 

If your pet goes outside see that appropriate identification is provided to prevent loss.

The Medieval sage, Maimonides, taught that there is no difference between the pain of people and the pain of other living beings, since the love and the tenderness of the mother for her young ones is not produced by reasoning but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in people but in most living things. (The Guide for the Perplexed 3:48)