Blind spots? There’s no end to them. We forget the ten per cent minority who are left-handed and blithely expect them to make the best of a world designed for right-handers. We talk about the Ten Commandments when we should talk about the nine, the Sabbath being at best a half-day observance and mostly forgotten altogether. And now we are being reminded about another blind-spot – the effect of our pets on climate change.
Not many of us knew that the university of Edinburgh has a school of geo-sciences. It does. A study led by Peter Alexander of that school has found that about 49m hectares of agricultural land –roughly twice the size of the UK – are used annually to make dry food for cats and dogs. It may have been over-the-top to headline a report on this issue ‘how pet food is destroying the planet’ but cats and dogs and other pets can hardly be left out of the debate.
Pets are, of course, absent from the pages of the Bible. If King Herod had a favourite wolf-hound, we are told nothing about it. Whether Lady Bernice had a Pekingese or even a Corgi, we can only guess. It seems unlikely that the wealthy in former days had no desire to build up a private zoo or even a circus. (Solomon does appear to have had leanings in this direction.) In general the biblical writers did not see fit to bring such matters under their purview. Not even a goldfish leading a solitary life in a royal bowl gets a mention.
So we can cheerfully speculate and legislate on the basis of ignorance as far as guidance from the biblical documents is concerned. Of course, we already do this when it comes to rather more substantial issues, like democracy, land ownership, state provision of education, penal policy and community coherence.
So there is no call for alarm. The tocsin may happily remain silent. We have more important things to think about. Except that we may just occasionally think for a moment, as we pick up the cat food from the supermarket shelf, that those members of the animal kingdom that we welcome into our homes may have their rights. But they also – or we their owners – have responsibilities. If they cannot answer for themselves, we have to speak for them.
WELL DONE, PETER
Peter Pollington, the editor of the monthly newsletter of Langham with Boxted churches, Essex is re-introducing a print copy (with a new look) of his publication. Thanks to an army of volunteers it goes to every home in the two parishes.
SINGERS AND RINGERS
Ellie Charman, Curate of St John’s episcopal church, Wick, Scotland has two groups adding to the life of the church – singers and ringers (of handbells). And we in England are happily content to regard Newcastle and Carlisle as being in the north!
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