Why Should I Care About Animals?

I’m not what you might call an animal person. I hunt and eat meat. My heart doesn’t melt over cute cats or dogs. I’m not in favor of house pets, and I surely don’t refer to my family’s dogs as “fur babies.” (Yes, I lost that house-pet battle.) But I am intrigued by the last words of God’s closing speech to Jonah: “Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?” (Jonah 4:11, NASB).

As well as many animals? Should we care about animals?

If the city of Nineveh had been destroyed, animals would have died too. Animal suffering should have roused Jonah’s heart to compassion, but it didn’t. If we share Jonah’s apathy, we need a more biblical theology of animals. Read More