For the Love of Critters

For the Love of Critters 

By Lawrence W. Reed 

If you’re an animal lover like me, you know there’s a lot more to like about animals besides the fact that some of them are tasty.

“Animals are such agreeable friends,” wrote the English poet and novelist George Eliot. “They ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.” With a grizzly bearing down on you at 40 mph, you’d think differently but that’s rather exceptional.

Yes, we eat them and sometimes, they eat us. But how animals enrich our lives can be appreciated even by vegetarians (derived from Latin, meaning “bad hunter”).

From seeing-eye dogs to monkeys trained to detect seizures in humans, animals play important roles in occupational and speech therapies and physical rehabilitation. Doctors at the National Center for Health Research tout studies showing that “people who have a pet have healthier hearts, stay home sick less often, make fewer visits to the doctor, get more exercise, and are less depressed.” Pets even lower anxiety and blood pressure, at least most of the time. They help us laugh, love, and learn.

Animals provide us with milk and meat for nutrition and hair and wool for clothing. They are an indispensable source of certain medicines and vitamins. When they’re not eating our crops, they’re fertilizing, cultivating, or pollinating them.

Though animals don’t have “rights” in the sense that humans do, good people reject wanton cruelty and the pointless killing of them. Parents miss a teaching opportunity when they fail to instruct their children in proper respect for animals, the lack of which can lead to disrespect for life in general.

Proverbs 12:10 tells us, “The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.”

I’m grateful to our local newspaper here in Newnan, Georgia, for spotlighting each week a sheltered dog or cat that needs a good home, and just as thankful for the good people who provide those homes. Few things anger me more than when an innocent animal is abused or neglected; such occasions make me wish I was a judge so I could throw the book at the guilty.

I’ve lost count over the years of how many animals I’ve considered as “mine.” I’ve owned and loved dogs and cats, turtles and fish, a monkey, and even four baby fox squirrels I raised when they lost their mother. My current dog is named “Radio” for his big ears. He keeps me healthy by insisting on walks every day. He’s 52% Australian cattle dog, 30% pit bull, and 18% Staffordshire Terrier. His picture graces this page.

A world without animals—even the ones you wouldn’t want to have dinner with—is just unthinkable.

(See also Why Dogs Often Make Us Better People.) 

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(Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus, Humphreys Family Senior Fellow, and Ron Manners Global Ambassador for Liberty at the Foundation for Economic Education in Atlanta, Georgia. He blogs at www.lawrencewreed.com)