God has granted mankind dominion over creation, but this does not permit the destruction of what He has made. Man is called to act responsibly, yet often fails to do so, as animals are tortured and environments are devastated for profit. God instructed Adam and Eve to tend and keep the Garden of Eden, maintaining and helping it produce, while allowing the use of certain trees for wood and animals for meat. However, no part of His creation is to be equated with man or worshiped. Though God gives certain rights to animals and charges us with responsibilities for their care, He did not endow them with human abilities, rights, or obligations. They are not made in His image, and thus a human life holds infinitely greater value than an animal's. We should not feel guilt for using the land God has entrusted to us to tend and keep, as it is given to men and women, not to animals. Yet, there are instances where animal lives are prioritized over human well-being, such as when a child endured painful rabies shots to spare otters, or when a man was forced to remove a protective fence due to laws protecting snakes, violating his safety. These examples reflect a troubling trend of ascribing human emotions and characteristics to animals, elevating them to a near-human plane, which can border on a form of worship when courts and lawmakers place animal rights above human needs.

PETA states that many biblical scholars believe Jesus was a vegetarian. PETA claims that Jesus' message is one of love and compassion and that there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent deaths. PETA asserts that Jesus mandates kindness, mercy, compassion, and love for all God's creation and would be appalled by the suffering inflicted on animals to indulge an acquired taste for their flesh. PETA presents a choice to add to the level of violence, misery, and death in the world or to respect God's creation with a vegetarian diet. Ted Altar argues that there is no unequivocal biblical reference to Christ eating or buying meat. Lewis Regenstein notes that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus depicted as eating meat and observes that if the Last Supper was a Passover meal there is no mention of the traditional lamb dish. These writers require chapter and verse to prove things they oppose and use the absence of a proof-text to advance their claims.

Animal rights emerge as a biblical topic rooted in the creation account, where Genesis establishes both a kinship and a distinction between humanity and animals. Both share an earthy origin, but only mankind was made in God's image, given male-and-female distinction, and granted dominion. This dominion, however, is not absolute license; it carries responsibility, since authority from God always requires acting toward the governed as God Himself would act—out of love and concern rather than exploitation. Adam's first task, naming the animals, demonstrated both his unique intelligence and his God-given duty to observe and care for them, while also revealing that animals could not provide the fellowship for which he was created. After the Flood, the relationship between man and animals changed, becoming marked by fear and force rather than the original harmony, though dominion itself remained intact. Despite this, Scripture affirms that animals possess real rights from God: to share the earth, to rest on the Sabbath alongside human workers, to be fed while laboring (not muzzled while treading grain), to be helped when fallen under a burden, and to have their young protected while sparing the mother bird. These laws reveal God pleading the cause of the weak and defenseless, a category in which animals rank alongside the poor, the alien, and the powerless, since they cannot speak or fight back for themselves. Proverbs 12:10 teaches that the righteous "knows the soul" of his animal, implying intimate awareness of its feelings and needs, while the wicked treat animals with cruelty even in acts that appear merciful. Deuteronomy 11 and Psalm 104 show that animal well-being and human well-being are interdependent—when animals are blessed, man is blessed, and vice versa—leading ancient rabbis to conclude that a man should feed his livestock before himself. This principle of care extends to simple acts like feeding birds, which God repays through practical benefits such as insect control in gardens, illustrating that kindness to animals is rewarded "in spades." Beyond direct commands, animals serve a further purpose: they teach wisdom through observation, as Job 12 indicates when it says to "ask the beasts" and let them "teach you." Studying the traits God built into creatures like the ant, the deer, the wild donkey, the fox, the goat, and the worm reveals character lessons—diligence, dignity, wildness, cunning, hypocrisy, or humility—meant to shape human behavior and self-understanding. Ultimately, the treatment of animals reflects a broader principle of exercising dominion in a godly manner: using without abusing, aiding the weak rather than exploiting them, and recognizing that even small, unnoticed acts of care—like feeding a sparrow—can carry spiritual significance before God, who is aware of every creature's fall and intends that mankind govern His creation with the same compassion He Himself demonstrates.