Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship and unconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be with their pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists have started to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to “own” other sentient beings in this way. This book brings a Christian perspective to bear on the subject of our responsibility to animals, looked at through the lens of our relations with pets—especially dogs. The book argues that the emotional bond with companion animals should play a central role i ... More

Many of us keep pet animals; we rely on them for companionship and unconditional love. For some people their closest relationships may be with their pets. In the wake of the animal rights movement, some ethicists have started to re-examine this relationship, and to question the rights of humans to “own” other sentient beings in this way. This book brings a Christian perspective to bear on the subject of our responsibility to animals, looked at through the lens of our relations with pets—especially dogs. The book argues that the emotional bond with companion animals should play a central role in the way we think about animals in general, and—against the more extreme animal liberationists—defends the intermingling of the human and animal worlds. It tries to imagine what it would be like to treat animals as a gift from God, and indeed argues that not only are animals a gift for us, but they give to us; we need to attend to their giving and return their gifts appropriately. Throughout, the book insists that what Christians call grace is present in our relations with animals just as it is with other humans. Grace is the inclusive and expansive power of God's love to create and sustain relationships of real mutuality and reciprocity, and the book unfolds the implications of the recognition that animals participate in God's abundant grace. The book's thesis affirms and persuasively defends many of the things that pet lovers feel instinctively—that their relationships with their companion animals are meaningful and important, and that their pets have value and worth in themselves in the eyes of God.