57. Man is not allowed to torture animals or to keep them in inhumane conditions.

Man is not allowed to torture animals or to keep them in inhumane conditions.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 57

Ave Maria series

57.  How should man treat animals and other fellow creatures?

Man should honor the Creator in other creatures and treat them carefully and responsibly.  Man, animals, and plants have the same Creator who called them into being out of love.  Therefore a love of animals is profoundly human.  [344, 354]

My granddaughter Emma sits quietly at a camp site allowing a whitetail deer to approach.  The animal had become accustomed to humans in this state park.  Emma had tossed a piece of an apple to the deer.  .....57

Although man is allowed to use and eat plants and animals, he is nevertheless not allowed to torture animals or to keep them in inhumane conditions.  That contradicts the dignity of creation just as much as exploiting the earth thoughtlessly out of greed.

“All creatures on earth feel as we do.  All creatures on earth love, suffer, and die as we do, and therefore they are equally with us works of the almighty Creator—our brethren.”  St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

344, 354

Heaven and Earth

THE VISIBLE WORLD

344 There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact that all have the same Creator and are all ordered to his glory: May you be praised, O Lord, in all your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom you give us light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a symbol of you, the Most High. . .

May you be praised, my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste. . .
May you be praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses. . .
Praise and bless my Lord, give thanks and serve him in all humility.(  St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures.)²¹² –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

IN BRIEF

354 Respect for laws inscribed in creation and the relations which derive from the nature of things is a principle of wisdom and a foundation for morality. --CCC