As today is the special feast day of St Francis of Assisi, and thus my name day, I thought I would add a little to my recent blog on the relationship between human beings and animals.
In his post in response to this blog, M Forrestal was quite right to draw my attention to Catholic teaching on the status of animals in relation to God’s created order. I did not wish to disparage the animal kingdom in any way, merely to attack what I see as a false sentimentality about animals, allied to indifference to nascent human life. Forrestal is right to say that Catholics cannot have it both ways: if we want respect to be shown to pre-born human life, we should also recognise that modern animal husbandry has had a wretched record regarding the treatment of animals intended for human consumption.
