Animal Rights

• Christians believe animals should be treated well
• Christianity has no specific food laws, so vegetarianism and veganism are individual decisions
• Some Christians believe it's always wrong to cause suffering to animals to increase scientific knowledge
• Utilitarianism in relation to animal consumption

  1. Some argue that humans are built to consume meat

  2. Others believe hurting animals is wrong, so it's better to be vegetarian or vegan
• Key Issues in Animal Rights

  • Animal Experimentation
  • Vegetarianism
• Christianity teaches that animals should be treated with kindness and can be used to benefit mankind as long as their suffering is considered
• Cruelty to animals is forbidden in Islam
• Utilitarianism is the idea that decisions should be made based on what has the best balance of good and bad outcomes
• The idea of khalifah affects how Muslims treat animals
• (What religion) Islam teaches that animals should never be mistreated
• Muslims believe in showing compassion for all creatures and that animals must be slaughtered humanely for the meat to be halal
• Utilitarianism in relation to animal testing

  1. Some people see animal testing as acceptable if it could help many people, even if animals suffer

  2. Others view the issue in a utilitarian way
• Muslims generally only allow animal testing if it is done to produce genuine medical advances for humans without unnecessary pain inflicted on the animals
• Only human life is considered sacred in Christianity as only humans were created in the image of God
• The Catholic Church tolerates animal testing only if it benefits mankind, such as leading to the development of life-saving medicines