what are the catholic religious veiws on animal rights/testing?

Answer 1

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. (Genesis 9:1-3)

The Catholic Church teaches:

+ It is a sin to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.

+ It is not a sin to kill animals with as little suffering as possible for food, clothing, and the health and safety of humans.

+ Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving of human lives.

For more information, see Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 2415-2418 and following: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art7.htm#2415

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Catholics and other Christian faiths, by their meat eating, hunting and animal experimentation practices, create immense horrible suffering for cattle, pigs, poultry dogs cats mice and other animal creatures.
they are comitting sins each day by doing these activities and are committing sins of omision by not
taking a strong stand against animal abuse and promoting animal welfare. Factory farmed animals
and lab animals are tortured severely but the facts don't come out to the public, Do some googling into
these issues. Promotin of a healthy vegetarian diet would prevent much suffering of animals and produce healthier humans. I was raised Catholic and in a meat eating family. As a young adult
i lived in India and absorbed the cultural values of Hinduism, buddhism and Jainism. Humans should practice ahimsa, non injury of ALL living creatures, not just other humans. Humas can now use synthetics for clothing we are not bedoins. Meat eating is barbaric. Why kill anything? unless it
is a danger or harmful? Animals feel great pain and pigs have been proven to have intelligence as
that of dogs.Lentils, greens, rice, tofu, beans are delicious and much healthier. By the way, i have
been a non meat eater for over 40 yrs and i am in excellent health and look 15 yrs younger than i am.

Answer 3

I think as Christians we should all be against cruelty of animals since they are God's creatures. This Catholic here is against animal testing. It's immoral in many ways. I'm for animals' rights.

Answer 4

This Catholic is for animal rights and against animal testing.

Statement 1

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI):

Cardinal Ratzinger (CR) was asked the following question by the German journalist, Peter Seewald: Are we allowed to make use of animals, and even to eat them?



CR: “That is a very serious question. At any rate, we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God’s creatures and even if they do not have the same direct relation to God that man has, they are creatures of his will, creatures we must respect as companions in creation … Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.”



Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 78-79.

Statement 2

Pope John Paul II:

In 1990, in front of a public audience at the Vatican:



“animals posses a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.”

“animals are the fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect … they are as near to God as men are.”

Statement 3

Catholic Catechism (official teachings of the Catholic Church):

Paragraph 2416: “Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals … It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.”



Statement 4


The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2003 Agricultural Pastoral: "For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food" fourth section: A Catholic Agenda for Action: Pursuing a More Just Agricultural System; subsection V: Stewardship of Creation states:



"Catholic teaching about the stewardship of creation leads us to question certain farming practices, such as the operation of massive confined animal feeding operations. We believe that these operations should be carefully regulated and monitored so that environmental risks are minimized and animals are treated as creatures of God."

Answer 5

take a look at saint Francis of Assisi