God-given rights
Every creature was created with the chief end to glorify God. Since
the Garden of Eden was vegetarian, free of disease and violence, and
completely harmonious, we can deduce that animals glorified God by their
mere existence.
Animals glorify God by doing what they were created to do: exercising
their God-given instincts, reproducing, taking care of their young, and
also by being companions and helpers of humans.
The following article deals with the massacre of more than 50,000
dogs in China in order to fight rabies. Notice that vaccinated dogs, or
dogs that had had no chance of getting rabies were also killed. Not only
were they killed indiscriminately, but also brutally. Although this news
is not related directly to vegetarianism, Christian vegetarians probably
understand very well that the killing of animals for unnecessary
purposes is a moral issue.
Thankfully, the Chinese officials have been overwhelmingly bombarded
with e-mails, letters and phone calls from people from all over the
world demanding this massacre to stop and to look for other more humane
methods to prevent the spread of rabies.
To read the full article please visit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14139027/from/ET/
and
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14181622/
Your question and comments are welcome