Audie Murphy, who is considered to be the most decorated veteran in American military history [1], had this to say about his traumatic combat experiences and his difficulties after World War II: “After the war, they took Army dogs and rehabilitated them for civilian life. But they turned soldiers into civilians immediately, and let ’em sink or swim [2].” Murphy is certainly not alone in the post-traumatic stress that he dealt with, or in the attitude that people should be able to bounce back without any difficulty from their experiences. Unlike some other soldiers who appear to have found some peace [3], Audie Murphy never appears to have recovered from flashbacks, panic attacks, insomnia (which led to a dependence on sleeping pills), and digestive difficulties that resulted from his harrowing experiences in combat, though he did speak candidly about his problems and sought to use his own experiences to encourage help for other veterans with similar difficulties.
In the late 1800’s, organized child protection in the United States began when a beaten and neglected girl was removed from her abusive parents based on laws that had been designed for the protection of animals. In 1874, there were laws in the United States to protect animals from cruelty by their owners, but no national laws or agencies to protect children from cruelty by their parents [4]. This was despite the fact that there had been a common law tradition going back to colonial times that recognized the legitimacy of interventions on a case-by-case basis in troubled and dysfunctional families, and the fact that some states had recently started to protect children from neglect and abuse. It is ironic, and more than a little sad, that in order to protect a child it was necessary to point to the protections given to animals because they were greater than the statutory protections given to human beings. Even despite this, though, child abuse did not become a subject of major cultural importance until the early 1960’s, where it has remained to this day [5].
In light of what has been previously discussed, it is not surprising that Jesus Christ had to deal with the same problem during His ministry, making the following argument when healing a man on the Sabbath in Matthew 12:9-14: “Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, how they might destroy Him.” Here Jesus points out that the Pharisees were more considerate and loving to their animals than they were to their fellow human beings, and rather than rejoice in the fact that Jesus healed a man with a withered hand, they were so angry at being exposed for their lack of love and concern for others that they plotted against Christ (which is surely not a Sabbath-appropriate activity, nor appropriate at any other time).
All three of these stories share a common theme, and that is the lamentable tendency for human beings to give greater care and protection to animals than to fellow human beings. If combat dogs need to be rehabilitated for civilian life, is that not even more true of the men whose memories are full of the horrors of dead and dying men, and of the fear and trauma of combat? Are we not at least as feeling and sensitive to such horrors as dogs? If animals deserve protection from the cruelty of adults, is that not even more true of vulnerable children? Who can appreciate the beauty and wonder of little ones and have any desire to harm them? If sheep deserve to be lifted out of a pit and kept from distress on the Sabbath, is that not even more true for human beings? Is not the Sabbath made for man, to serve to free mankind from debt and slavery [6]? Why does this sort of thing happen, and happen consistently?
There are at least a few interrelated reasons why animals are given more care and protection than human beings, even if that behavior is itself cruel and wrong. For one, we have vastly higher expectations of human beings than animals. No one would assume that a helpless lamb would be able to remove themselves from a pit, but people who are trapped in their own pits, whether they be of illness or circumstance, are often assumed to be culpable and responsible for getting themselves out of trouble, assumptions that we do not make of other beings. Likewise, we assume that dogs are going to need rehabilitation and comfort in order to be comfortable dealing with others, but we assume that human beings have greater abilities to cope with horrors, and insufficient attention is paid to the lasting and serious damages that people suffer from traumatic experiences. Our over-exaggeration of the strength and resilience of others and our under-exaggeration of the severity of experiences for people leads us to be more compassionate for animals than for people.
Another reason why animals are treated with more care and protection than humans is because of the greater rights and freedoms of people. Because we consider animals to be beings with no rational will of their own, then we readily accept responsibility in protecting others. Even in those times and those societies where people (whether slaves or children or others) have been considered or thought to be the property of others, human beings of all ages and genders and tribes are recognized for the existence of a will (however rational or irrational that is thought to be). This greater willfulness has led to less protection and care, since it is vastly easier to take care of that which makes fewer demands and is more gracious and loving than it is that which is often hostile or suspicious or skeptical. Despite the fact that our greater intellect and stronger will makes us more noble than the animal kingdom, those same qualities make us less easy and less enjoyable to care for and protect, and often less rewarding to do so, leaving people whose primary motivation is ease or profitability to care for those creatures that are less demanding and more subject to our will.
As a result of these concerns, human beings are left to sink or swim in circumstances that would be unthinkable for animals. Rather than receiving care and concern because of our status as beings created in the image and likeness of the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, we are left to our own devices while love and concern is spent on much lesser animals who provide love and affection without making the same demands on our attention or effort. It is our selfishness and lack of honor for what God has imbued with honor and dignity that leads us in a consistent pattern of giving greater care to those who deserve it less, but who also demand less from us. As a result, even decorated war heroes, vulnerable children dealing with abuse, and those who suffer from diseases are treated with a sense of coldness and lack of care by others, while animals are protected. How long will we let this state of affairs continue?
[3] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/book-review-unbroken/
[5] One early researcher into child abuse in the 1960’s had this to say: “Child victims of adult sex offenders are a community’s least protected children. Frequent victims of parental neglect, they are, almost always, also neglected by the community which has consistently failed to recognize the existence of this as a substantial problem.” Even with the recognition of a serious problem, though, the idea that government is the solution has led to the problem remaining entrenched and not improving despite decades of attention.
[6] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/purposes-of-the-sabbath-part-two/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/a-broader-understanding-of-the-sabbath-day/
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/christ-the-sabbath-and-liberty/
Edge Induced Cohesion 
Audie Murphy starred in several movies after returning from the war (I saw a couple of them and he did a good job.)
We have a warped perspective regarding our expectations and care taking because we’ve rejected the notion that we come from a Higher Source. We’ve bought into the lie that we’ve emerged from a lower one. If dumb animals are what we used to be, we owe them something for our own coming to life, don’t we? But other humans are in competition with us–and survival is for the fittest. Nobility of the spirit does not exist within evolutionary thought so, until people recognize who and what they really are–and why–they will continue to treasure their possessions and abuse their fellow man; as they’ve done from the very beginning.
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Yes, that is the situation, unfortunately. That is an interesting view, I have to admit, on why we are kind to animals and not to people.
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