Animals and Ethics

Hey guys Kelbalrai again, well being a Muslim and a Furry I already did a two-part sermon on Islam and Animal Welfare, which is my interpretation combined from what I read in the Quran, relevant hadith, what some scholars have to say and then my personal opinion mixed in there, since pretty much Islam helps shape my view on animal ethics basically along with my personal fondness and closeness to animals:
Part 1
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3091645/

Part 2
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3113667/

I posted these mainly cause I admit I’m lazy since I already wrote a lot on the subject so basically my perspective goes with that XP As far as keeping pets goes, no problems there provided they are provided for all their physical and emotional needs(I want to get a German Shepherd anyway lol), with Vegetarianism, I think its simply permissable(Muhammad never ate beef though its not an impure meat in the Quran it was more out of his personal preference and one of his companions was vegetarian, and most Muslims at that time were at least semi-vegetarian as they ate meat but sparingly), that is not good or bad, but as I said in the sermon it depends how the animal was treated before slaughter and if the slaughter was done in the most painless way possible, As far as animal testing goes its not a black and white issue Imam Hafiz B A Masri said

“Actions shall be judged according to intention. Any kind of medical treatment of animals and experiments on them becomes ethical and legal or unethical and illegal according to the intention of the person who does it.”

To my understanding of Islamic ethics and for many scholars the idea is that research and experiments can be permitted but under specific conditions such as that the animal must not suffer pain or mutilation, and there must be a good reason for the experiment(fashion items and things like that does not count as a good reason :P)

And lastly I heard a talk on Spaying/Neutering, well in my opinion the overpopulation problem is more to do with human irresponsibility than to blame an animal’s private parts, a dog just acts like a dog, anything wrong that happens is the human’s fault from either negligence or abuse, looking back neutering wasn’t around that much until recently over the past 30 years and didn’t become mainstream till the last 20 years, in opinion I find it unnecessary and it just requires a little personal responsibility, keeping an intact dog does not mean you’re automatically part of the problem, that is fallacious, and saying that an animal is healthier and happier without his parts well…what about dogs used for breeding? They seem often are upright canine citizens and are often perfectly healthy and happy, So to me I blame humans for the overpopulation problem rather than blame the dog, in Europe they don’t shove the neutering thing down our throats as they do here, and they don’t have an overpopulation problem its mainly seen as a choice(so its more of a cultural problem as well, in the US we often buy puppies out of impulse rather than take into account that its a 10-15 year commitment and many people who are not prepared for a dog end up giving them back), and I believe its outright banned in Norway unless there’s a medical reason for it(such as cancer), so yeah, I oppose spay and neuter as I see it as unnecessary, but instead there is an alternative without messing up their bodily chemistry(they are there for a reason like we have them), that is vasectomy and tubal ligation, it sterilizes them but without them getting mutilated, and it prevents unwanted pregnancies, But yeah those are my two cents on that, to me its mutilation and unnecessary unless you have a medical reason for it.

Lastly hunting, simply hunting for food to me is perfectly fine and also using the whole animal and not wasting parts of it, on the other hand I oppose sports hunting because to me hunting for sport is a stupid sport, it may be fun for the guy doing it but not so fun for the animal especially when its not done out of necessity, so in short hunting for food yes, hunting for sport no.

So there you have it that’s my opinion on Animal ethics, peace out everyone