As we continue Animal Week, today we have a guest post from Claudia.
A few years ago, I came across a gem of a little book which I wish would be a standard work in the book collection of any Mormon.
Kindness to Animals and Caring for the Earth, compiled by Richard D. Stratton, “contains over 200 statements and stories on kindness to animals and caring for the earth from leaders, scholars, scientists, astronauts, historians, and frontiersmen of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Approximately ninety percent of the passages are from prophets and apostles, including excerpts from nearly every President of the Church. Each share their opinions, stories, or heartfelt expressions on kindness to animals and respect and admiration for the natural world.”
George Q. Cannon, counsellor in the First Presidency under Brigham Young and editor of the Juvenile Instructor, probably wrote more concerning the humane treatment of animals than any member of the Church. In 1868 he began writing editorials advocating kindness to animals by 1897 had founded the Sunday School-sponsored “Humane Day” (aka “Mercy Day”), an annual event dedicated to animal welfare. In addition to Humane Day, the LDS Church held “Bird Day” from 1913-1915, where a certain day was appointed for Sunday Schools to teach about the preservation of birds locally.
Most Mormons are completely unaware that there were such officially sanctioned Church programs dedicated to animal welfare. Humane Day was sponsored by the Sunday Schools of the LDS Church from 1897-1918 and was held during the month of February each year. According to Richard D. Stratton, the last significant mention of it was by President Joseph F. Smith in 1918. The last officially sanctioned Church program related to animal welfare was the “Kindness to Animals Club” (KTA) from 1952-1956. Stratton writes that the KTA “was sponsored by the Primary organization and published in The Children’s Friend.”
Stratton’s book is full of inspiring and, for their time, very progressive statements in support of animal welfare and not consuming meat except to preserve one’s life. It is perhaps a bit ironic that leaders of the Church — in the days when members were more dependent on animals for their survival — were so frequently vocal about the humane treatment of animals, emphasizing that we should never take their lives unless it is to save our own. Today, on the other hand, we are much less dependent on animals for our survival and supposedly much more enlightened on the subject of animal intelligence, emotion, and sensitivity to pain. The current leaders of the Church have been mostly silent on the issue of animal welfare for several decades, even seeing fit to profit from sport hunting grounds, once operated by missionaries (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/770568/Tending-the-flock.html) and including the appalling practice of canned hunting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_hunt).
In certain areas, it has not been unheard of for the youth to kill animals for mutual activities. I can recall the young men in my ward in Canada excitedly recounting their Wednesday night activity of chopping off the heads of chickens. A missionary here in Norway told me about “performing service” for a family by tying string around the necks of their unwanted cats and hanging them from a window. In response to my blog post about the LDS-owned hunting preserves, a blogger from Utah recalled a certain church activity from his youth:
“It was so sad to see my fellow “priests” shoot rabbits with glee and then when they ran out of bullets catch up to panting rabbits that were being driven into a trap and club them with their rifles.”
The Humane Society of the United States, in a section of its website dedicated to the views of different religions regarding animal life, has a page praising The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its animal-friendly teachings. I’m afraid, however, that this praise is largely undeserved. Presumably, HSUS is unaware of the lucrative LDS-owned hunting preserves. It also appears to be unaware of the fact that, while they have been good at talking the talk, Mormons get a failing grade in walking the walk where animal welfare is concerned.
In addition to a growing ethical awareness in western society about animal suffering induced by inhumane treatment and commercial farming practices, we also know that the world’s population is being “multiplied and replenished” at a staggering rate, with Mormons making a significant contribution. With the world’s growing appetite for meat, and what we now know about the environmental consequences of consumption, we are living in a time when animal welfare and caring for the earth should be at the forefront of the Mormon moral conscience.
Sadly, it doesn’t even appear to be on the radar.
Lovely article. Thanks for that :)
Beautiful post Claudia.
There’s a fantastic short story by Doug Thayer about a mutual hunting activity and the blood lust conflicts it involved: “Opening Day,” published in Dialogue, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1970).
What’s kind of crazy is that while holding these refined ideals, many pre and early post pioneer Mormons also participated in an extremely violent culture, in part consistent with American culture at large–see Michael Quinn’s most recent Sunstone article: “Early Mormonism’s Culture of Violence” appearing in the October 2011 volume.
This is lovely, and so surprising to me because–like you said–the issue has never even shown up on the radar of my experience with the Church! Thank you for writing it. I agree wholeheartedly.
Claudia – this is such an overlooked part of spirituality – especially within the LDS church and it’s something we turn a blind eye to. I feel as if so many good people work so hard at being so good that they have no awareness left to look at the situation of animal welfare. It is an ethical issue, and one that reflects our individual and collective value systems.
I wish I could remember who said it – I believe it was stated on one of the food documentaries I watched recently – but a comparison was made – it was stated that our current treatment of animals (namely the way we produce them for human consumption) is something that we’ve ignored so long that it will be this generation’s holocaust. We will look back and wonder how we let it go so far without acting on it. It sounds really dramatic, but once you do a little bit of research, you realize how shocking the reality of our prevalent animal cruelty actually is.
Thanks, all. This is a topic near and dear to my heart and even though I’m no longer a believer, I wish that Mormons would care to explore their own history to uncover important topics such as this. Sadly, as history gets overlooked and forgotten, we become ignorant of our own heritage and assume that things have always been the way they are now. Anyone who has studied Mormon history knows that that is not even close to being the case!! :D There is still a prevalent apathy and even a “vegetarianism is a sin” attitude among Mormons today. It even stopped me from taking the leap towards cutting out meat for several years before I finally decided to do it. But if young Mormons today were aware of their own history, they would be able to see more easily through such nonsense. It also saddens me that the Church has decided to basically disregard major parts of the same Word of Wisdom that they proclaim to follow.
As a very young, passionate vegetarian at BYU, I once gave a Sacrament Meeting talk on the Word of Wisdom. It was really about vegetarianism and I used a lot of quotes from George Q Cannon. I was too young and idealistic to know better…!
I think, it’s important to realize that we all pick and choose what we’ll adopt from our heritage, and our teachings. I shudder to think about what the church would be like if we followed all parts of our historical teaching, yet I do think there are ignored and forgotten pieces of wisdom there. I certainly choose to focus on kindness to animals more than worrying about things like what whether my daughter’s outfits are garment-proof. I think it’s better for her soul….
Thanks Claudia (I’ve only known you as The Faithful Dissident), its good to read you again. You say you no longer believe. I wondered where your explorations would lead. Maybe sometime you might share where you are now in your journey.
Always great to hear from you, Sanford! It’s been a long time. My journey is a long, strange one that has had its ups and downs. I’m no longer a believer in Mormonism, but still have an affinity for it as my spiritual heritage. I suppose it’s been a combination of many factors, but perhaps it was my work with refugees and investigation of other religions that helped me to come to terms with what I really believed/didn’t believe. It’s been very difficult, but at the same time a very emotional and spiritually-liberating experience that I’m now grateful for. Maybe someday I’ll be able to put it into a coherent post. :)
Sanford, not sure whether you caught this previous post of mine, but I told a little bit about how I’ve gotten to where I am now. https://dovesandserpents.org/2011/03/parallel-journeys/
There is no reason for dismay. There are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are kindly disposed to animals. Maybe some aren’t, such as those who own hunting preserves. But it is unfair to paint all Latter-day Saints with the same brush. It is unfair to use words like “LDS-owned hunting preserves” as suggestive of official support.
Some Latter-day Saints hunt. Some don’t. I haven’t raised my son to hunt, but he wants to. Some [in the U.S.] vote Republican. Some vote Democrat. Some are rich. Some are poor. Some drive Fords. Some drive Chevrolets. Some read books. Some watch television.
There is great beauty in that diversity. Each person does the best he or she can. It would be a tremendous sadness if everyone were forced to adopt the same perspective and opinion, or even shamed into adopting the same opinion.
I appreciate your kindness towards animals, and wish you well in your journey to happiness. Please do not despise other Latter-day Saints who have not arrived at your level of understanding yet. There are many members who want to hear General Authorities of the Church address their particular concerns in General Conference, but almost all of them are disappointed.
Ji, I disagree that it’s inaccurate to label the hunting preserves as “LDS-owned.” They are owned and operated by the LDS Church and the profits go to the LDS Church. LDS missionaries were used to staff them. How is that not official support?
Maybe they are church-owned. I live far away from the center place. But I have heard that Marriott hotels are church-owned, and a chain of truck stops, and so forth — so I am always wary of comments that seem to shift ownership by individual Mormons to church ownership. But even so, really? Church-owned hunting preserves? Staffed by missionaries? Where, pray tell? Normally, I’m not a hunter — but if the Church owns a preserve, maybe I’ll want to go. [that’s a joke]
Ji, the Church’s two hunting preserves are located in UT. One is called Westlake and the other is Deseret Land and Livestock Co. If I remember correctly from the Sunstone podcast (which can be accessed from the link below), it’s the presiding bishopric who oversees their operation and has closed the doors to dialogue on the subject. The missionaries who were staffing Westlake were interviewed by Deseret News (link provided in link below). From what I understand, the Church responded to protests against missionaries working there, as well as the canned hunting of birds. Aside from that, things appear to be the same.
http://thefaithfuldissident.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-post-is-church-sacrificing-principle.html
Thanks — I read the link — I regret this circumstance, and wish it wasn’t so — however, I’ve come to understand that different people look on matters with differing perspectives. Maybe it will change one day. In the meantime, I still want to sustain the Church’s leaders, both on the ecclesiastical and the business sides, who do their best.
Thank you for the enlightening post. I would just add my two cents:
It shouldn’t be surprising that the Humane Society is more than happy to endorse the LDS beliefs. The HSUS is considered by many other animal rights organizations to be very ineffective. HSUS has taken an approach of encouraging and endorsing even the smallest moves forward in animal rights. For example–endorsing regulations requiring slightly more room for caged laying hens, whereas the rest of the animal animal rights world wants the cages completely abolished.
I would hope that the author and and commenters here who have referenced their vegetarianism are actually consistent in these beliefs. If you really don’t eat meat for animal welfare reasons, then it is only consistent that you also refuse to eat eggs and dairy (or at least be very selective) as these industries are no better, and by some reckoning much worse than the meat industries. If you think it is inhumane to eat a hybrid meat chicken that has been raised in dirty confinement with tens of thousands of other chickens, then it is only consistent to be concerned about the welfare of their poultry counterparts in the laying industry, which have similar egregious conditions. In fact meat chickens only have to suffer for 5 to 6 weeks from hatching to slaughter–laying hens endure this torture for 18 months to 2 years. The same could be said of dairy cows–it’s the same poor treatment as meat cows, but over a much longer life. And whether they are laying hens or dairy cows, they are all still slaughtered in the end.
To say the least, while I haven’t yet found the need to be a vegetarian myself, I appreciate the idealogical consistency of vegans. I too have struggled, and still struggle with animals dying for my consumption. I’m actually very well acquainted with the process. Because of my personal concerns about animal welfare, I have made a bit of a business in providing an alternative to inhumanely treated factory farmed animals. On my small farm, we raise poultry and beef to very high and humane standards. So I do obviously feel very strongly about kindness to animals even if I draw the line in a different place.
My journey has led me to the brink of veganism. I feel sad at each animal I kill. However I feel the same feeling when I cut down tree, or harvest a plant that will not rejuvenate but will die as a result of feeding me. I just feel bad at the loss of life. That the tree will not have a chance to grow taller and prouder, or that a beautiful rooster will no longer be crowing. In the end, there is death for all that lives. Nature itself is full of violence and sorrow. The deer in my back yard will eventually fall prey to a mountain lion, but at least they had a good life grazing in green mountain pastures. Likewise, my laying hens will eventually be slaughtered, but I gave them about the best life a hen could have. I do agree though, that this should be a church much more concerned with righteous stewardship of the earth and the animals therein.
Thank you for this article. We are supposed to eat meat only in times of famine.