While we’re supposed to avoid tzaar baalei hayyim, there is a long-standing halakhic tradition (Tosafot mentions that it is mutar to kick the legs of a beheima you capture in war, IIRC, and the Rema paskened that it was ok to pluck a feather out of a live goose for use as a quill) upholding a utalitarian view of our relationship to animals; as with the rest of creation, man’s relation to beast is one of both stewardship and utility. Animals do not have rights and personifying them weakens the distinction between animals and humans, who alone are created be tzelem elokim.
Menu