Care for God’s Creation Includes Puppy Mill Dogs

During the pandemic, my family fostered an adult dog. She was timid and shy, and the fostering organization advised us that she would benefit from a gentle, quiet environment due to the experiences of her life up to that point. This dog, whom we named Luna, was used for breeding in a puppy mill.

Thankfully, Luna became more comfortable with our family, and became a part of our home shortly after, because I could not fathom sending her back after she had just begun to trust humans for perhaps the first time. She remained with us, but the effects of her time in a harsh, confining environment would always be present in various ways for the rest of her life.

Luna was far from a unique case. The nonprofit Humane World for Animals estimates that 500,000 dogs are kept for the purposes of breeding in both licensed and unlicensed puppy mills across the country. This includes facilities that are regularly inspected by the USDA, although for every such facility, it is estimated that there are two more that receive no inspection, regulation, or licensing.

The conditions of these facilities are often oppressive and inhumane. Dogs kept for breeding purposes are stacked in cages, and that is often the only existence that they know for the duration of their lives. These conditions are also unsanitary, and both the breeding dogs and resulting puppies suffer from poor hygiene and physical illness. This will also result, as my family saw with Luna, in enduring emotional trauma. Dogs who are not as fortunate as Luna to eventually find a family or other facility to take them after they have been deemed no longer useful are put down, discarded like the objects they were always seen as.

The writer of Psalm 8 spends the first few verses of his song marveling at how much God cares for humanity. He expresses deep awe and appreciation for the high regard and love with which God treats us; even asking why God would do so. “Who are we?”, he asks. “What are we to the Source of all life, the Divine ruler of everything that is seen and unseen?” (Psalm 8:3–4)

While the Psalmist does not directly answer his own question, he does spend more time reflecting on humanity’s special status. In the grand order of created beings, he says, we are only slightly below the angels, the great heralds and watchers and guides whom God has appointed. And while he could continue celebrating this truth, he instead turns his attention to what this prominent position in the world entails:

            You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
                       you have put all things under their feet,
              all sheep and oxen,
                       and also the beasts of the field,
              the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
                       whatever passes along the paths of the seas. (Psalm 8:6–8)

To have dominion over creation is a heavy responsibility. One could read such dominion as a freedom to exploit and to use however one wishes regardless of the harm that it may cause to what God has made. But there is no indication that God would wish for such treatment. Rather, given the care that God has shown humanity, it naturally follows that humans in turn would extend that same loving consideration for that with which it has been entrusted.

Puppy mills are what happens when dominion is interpreted as exploitation—if God is even factored into the choices of their owners’ decisions at all. They are places of abuse and squalor, where breeding dogs and their puppies alike are discarded, their monetary value elevated far above their value as creatures.

For those of us who call ourselves people of faith, passages like Psalm 8 have particular implications for what dominion over God’s world looks like. We have been entrusted with a sacred task to be care-filled stewards of all that God has made. God has done so with us, as the Psalmist observes, so too must we view our responsibility as having the same character and execution.

One of Luna’s most prominent features was her eyes. When we first took her in, her eyes were what most clearly communicated the pain and trauma of her former life. I can imagine thousands of pairs of eyes locked away in cages all over the country that would tell similar stories if we dared to look and listen.

Having been entrusted with those stories, we have also been charged to begin writing better ones for those animals trapped in such a life. This may entail reaching out to elected officials, starting petitions, joining existing movements. It also entails asking questions of establishments that sell dogs: where they came from, how they’ve been treated, what illnesses they have had or may have now and why.

We did our best to give Luna a life that she deserved, the sort of life that God intended for her. Pursuing such a life for so many more silently hoping for it is part of what faithful dominion looks like.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Rev. Jeff Nelson serves as the Minister for Ministerial Calls and Transitions for the Ministerial Excellence, Support, and Authorization (MESA) Team in the National Setting of the United Church of Christ.

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