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Genesis 1:26 (KJV)
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
Genesis 1:28 (KJV)
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
Mark 5:11-13 (also in Matthew 8:28-34 & Luke 8:32-33)
"Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand,) and were choked in the sea."
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, Part II-II, Question 64, Article 1, Reply Obj. 3)
"Dumb animals and plants are devoid of the life of reason. And hence it is that there is no fellowship between us and them, as there is between us and other men. Now the life of animals and plants is preserved not for themselves, but for man. Therefore, by killing them or using them in any other way whatsoever, man does not commit a sin."
>St. Aquinas argues that animals exist for human use, but cruelty to animals is still wrong if it leads to cruelty toward humans.
Other early Christian thinkers with similar views:
✅ Augustine (suggested animals have no eternal souls)
✅ Clement of Alexandria (animals are for human use)