Reply To: Stupid ASPCA commercials

Health. I disagree. You cannot use Hashem’s cheshbonos of who he saves and who he punishes to decide who has more worth. The Torah and chazal are very, very clear that a human being had a tzelem Elokim which animals do not have. That makes a human being’s life intrinsically more worthy than that of an animal’s. I did not say more “deserving,” only more inherently worthy.

Secondly, you misinterpret my carrot statement. I am not saying you have the same responsibility towards an animal as you do towards a carrot. I am only saying that their end goals are just the same: To be used by mankind to serve God. Whether that service is in the form of being used to feed anee’im, or in the form of being the means by which mankind exercises their compassion, is completely irrelevant. I am well aware of that Gemara and am not refuting it. The reason I made this statement was to refute rebdoniel’s implication that somehow evil human beings depreciate in value until they are worth less than animals. As proof, I propose you take a look back at parshas Balak and the Chazal discussing the reason for the death of Bilaam’s ancient and miraculous talking donkey, which happened as to not slight the honor of Bilaam- the Hitler of his days- who set out to commit genocidal annihilation against klal Israel.