“A righteous (just) person regards the life (inner being) of their animal. ”
We believe:
Every animal is inherently and irrevocably valuable. Every animal has inherent and irrevocable rights. When that value and those rights are violated, taken away, sacrificed for the benefit of someone else, not protected and not rendered, for any reason, an injustice has occurred. Animals and humans can have a mutually beneficial relationship. To be clear, while we recognize the massive benefits of veganism, we do not implicitly promote veganism as the sole answer to animal injustice. We believe animals can be humanely and lovingly born and raised and die peacefully while still providing benefits to humans along the way and at the end of their lives.
What we Do
Currently, we are seeking opportunities to:
reduce the use of animals in products and entertainment
help increase ethical care of animals being raised for food and drastically reduce immoral and inhumane methods of killing animals being raised for food
enhance laws and the regulatory landscape for animal welfare and human interactions with animals
The Case for Animal Justice:
God created every animal and acknowledged they “were good”. He then put man in charge to “rule over” the animals. – Genesis 1:25-26 This “rule over” is often used to legitimize the indiscriminate uses and abuses of animals. However, we can reasonably say that God would have expected man to use the same standards to rule as God himself would use, within man’s capabilities of course.
- God blessed the animals he created (Genesis 1:22)
- God called the animals “good” (Genesis 1:25).
- God created man partially so that man could rule over and care for the animals (as opposed to creating the animals to be servants of man) (Genesis 1:26-28).
- God gave man and the animals the plants as food (not the animals as food to man) (Genesis 1:29).
- God cares for the needs of, pays attention to and feeds animals without them having to earn it (Matthew 6:26-30).
- All animals are God’s property (Psalms 50:10-11) Consider how He would want his property cared for by the one He put in charge of it!
- It wasn’t until AFTER sin entered the world through the decision of man that animals became servants to man, food for man and subject to the cruelty of man.
- God’s design and preferred eternal conditions are that the lion will lay down with the lamb in peace, the lions will eat straw (instead of other animals) Isaiah 11:6-7.
- Someone who is just or righteous, will regard the life (inner being) of his animal (Proverbs 12:10)
SCIENTIFICALLY - Even if you disregard or do not believe the Biblical perspective given above; secular science and our own interactions with animals over the years have proven that animals have emotions, feel pain and feel happy, are intelligent, are caring, communicate with one another, are mentally and emotionally aware and are more like humans than we ever knew before. The old ideas that animals are purely instinct driven, have no capacity for sympathy or decision and are thoughtless creatures wandering about in an emotionless and zombie-like state are antiquated without any of the value of a true antique.
MORALLY - Mahatma Gandhi was quoted as saying “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” We see the truth of this today. For example, consider the front-facing charade of many governments, businesses and personal relationships that hide back-office unjust deals, profit pursuit at any expense and break downs in trust and morals resulting in broken families and societies. These societal realities directly parallel the front facing product labels, brochures and commercials we see with happy-looking animals who were used to make those products. But behind the scenes are the torturous and hidden food factory/fur farms, disguised puppy mills, gang-style beatings to train entertainment animals and PTSD-inducing experiments on animals in laboratories. These realities are too much to bear for the billions of animals they effect every year! These are the “Ghosts in Our Machine”.
Animals are BY FAR, the most weak, most vulnerable, most tortured, most abused, most quiet and oppressed class of living creature; and they can’t speak for themselves!
A FIRM POSITION - We at BJST refuse to succumb to this morally flawed way of thinking that it is ok to use and treat animals in any manner, for any purpose. It violates the value and rights of animals. We believe animals and humans can have a mutually beneficial relationship. We are working hard to:
A. identify animal injustices
B. prevent the injustice
C. relieve the symptoms animals experience from the injustice
D. work to restore animals from the injustice
Whether it is preventing, treating the symptoms or restoring, YOU can truly be part of meaningful impact by getting involved