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Inspirational
"Every day the Humane Societies execute thousands of pets, who have tried
all their lives to do the very best by their owners. These pets are killed, not
because they are bad, but because they are inconvenient."
"Every day the Humane Societies execute thousands of pets, who have tried
all their lives to do the very best by their owners. These pets are killed, not
because they are bad, but because they are inconvenient."
- – Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
- "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its
animals are treated ... I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it
is to protection by man from the cruelty of man."
- Mahatma Gandhi
"Speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves"
~Proverbs 31:8
“What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks.
Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and
butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. You have not taken care of
the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone
looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled
them with harshness and cruelty”
~Ezekiel 34:2-4
“The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals, but even the kindness of
the wicked is cruel.”
~Proverbs 12:10
“Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord
demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly
resisting me. Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would
certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey”
~Numbers 22:32-33
Mankind’s Role On Earth—Dominion and Stewardship: “Then God said, ‘Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His
own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created
them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill
the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the
air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” (Gen. 1:26-29). “Then the
LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it”
(Gen. 2:15). These two verses are the heart of what has historically been called
mankind’s “cultural mandate.” Examined in the light of other Scripture, it’s clear that
people are mandated to develop the potentialities of the earth in such a way as to
bring honor and glory to God and reflect His attributes: “He has shown you, O man,
what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?”
~Micah 6:8
Andrew Linzey expressed it like this: “We need a concept of ourselves in the
universe not as the master species but as the servant species—as the one given
responsibility for the whole and for the good of the whole. We must move from the
idea that animals were given to us and made for us, to the idea that we were made
for creation, to serve it and ensure its continuance. This actually is little more than
the theology of Genesis chapter two. The Garden is made beautiful and abounds
with life: humans are created specifically to ‘take care of it’”
~Genesis 2:15
Francis Schaeffer indicates the same in slightly different terms: “Man has
dominion over the ‘lower’ orders of creation, but he is not sovereign over them.
Only God is the Sovereign Lord, and the lower orders are to be used with this truth
in mind. Man is not using his own possessions. . . . When we have dominion over
nature, it is not ours either. It belongs to God, and we are to exercise our dominion
over these things not as though entitled to exploit them, but as things borrowed or
held in trust which we are to use realizing that they are not ours intrinsically. Man's
dominion is under God's dominion and in God's domain.” (From Pollution and the
Death of Man: The Christian View of Ecology).
The Prayer Of A Stray
~ Author Unknown
Dear God, please send me somebody who'll care!
I'm tired of running, I'm sick with despair.
My body is aching, it's so racked with pain.
And dear God I pray as I run in the rain,
that someone will love me and give me a home.
A warm cozy bed I can call my own.
My last owner neglected me and chased me away
to rummage in garbage and live as a stray.
But now, God, I'm tired and hungry and cold.
And I'm afraid that I'll never grow old.
They've chased me with sticks and hit me with stones,
while I run in the streets just looking for bones!
I'm not really bad, God, please help me, if you can.
For I have just become a "VICTIM OF MAN"!
I'm wormy, Dear God, and I'm ridden with fleas,
and all that I want is an owner to please!
If You find one for me, God, I'll try to be good.
I won't run away and I'll do as I should.
I don't think I'll make it too long on my own,
cause I'm getting so weak and I'm so all alone.
Each night as I sleep in the bushes I cry,
cause I'm so afraid, God, that I'm gonna die!
And I've got so much love and devotion to give,
that I should be given a new chance to live.
So, dear God, PLEASE, PLEASE answer my prayer
and send me somebody who WILL really care...
A DOG'S PRAYER
~Beth Norman Harris
Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in all the world is more grateful for
kindness than the loving heart of me. Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I
should lick your hand between the blows, your patience and understanding will
more quickly teach me the things you would have me do.
Speak to me often, for your voice is the world's sweetest music, as you must know by the fierce wagging of
my tail when your footstep falls upon my waiting ear.
When it is cold and wet, please take me inside... for I am now a domesticated animal, no longer used to
bitter elements... and I ask no greater glory than the privilege of sitting at your feet beside the hearth...
though had you no home, I would rather follow you through ice and snow than rest upon the softest pillow in
the warmest home in all the land... for you are my god...and I am your devoted worshiper.
Keep my pan filled with fresh water, for although I should not reproach you were it dry, I cannot tell you when
I suffer thirst. Feed me clean food, that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by
your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life, should your life be in danger.
And, beloved master, should the Great Master see fit to deprive me of my health or sight, do not turn me
away from you. Rather hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal
rest...and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I drew, my fate was ever safest in your hands.
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