Ecology
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Help a Man Before an Animal
It happens to you, no doubt, as it happens to me: Visiting some family or a friend, or even just sitting in a waiting room someplace, you become television’s latest victim in its daily spree
of killing of the senses. The killing blow, of course, is dealt by its profoundly disordered commercials, which range from the strange to the idiotic.
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What I have been particularly shocked by of late are those exhorting the public to donate to all manner of millionaire animal charities, some of which operate abroad.
What disproportion there must be for such “charities” to exist. Rather than a legitimate, healthful organ, each one is a cancer grown rapidly out of control. And they are not benign: Whatever “good” they effect is offset by a kind of blindness. That is, man is becoming blind to his place over nature.
I recall a brief aside from a priest who explained in an interview that today’s low tastes stem from a disordered preference for the inferior good in a man’s soul. Having an aversion to higher things, the disordered man prefers a good, which, while not evil in itself, is clearly lesser in the order of things. And he never reaches for the higher good.
You always hear of someone well-off in the world who has donated a small fortune so dogs can be rescued in Bali. But how open are his coffers for the poor?
“Give to the poor only your superfluous…” as one Pontiff wisely taught; but understand the value of human life! If one is going to give at all, his first priority should be the aid of his fellow man. The least of all the homeless, the most corrupted and pitiful soul, is greater still than any animal on earth.
The denial of this fact comes with the Leveling of Everything, the Revolution. Man has not kingship over nature; man and nature are equal; man is even no more than an animal! Madness.
This “leveling” between animal and man is felt everywhere. The poor and middle-class take on large debts for animal surgeries or treatments for an animal they see as “part of the family”. A dog or a cat is not a member of the family. It is property. Insofar as a dog is under one’s yoke and rod, one should keep it in good health where possible – but never to the point that the family’s finances are in danger. Least of all, a man should not make the welfare of animals across the world his concern.
Pets were viewed differently in the last century. My grandfather grew up a hillbilly in the Ozarks, and treasured his hounds enough that he nearly got into a gunfight when one was cruelly slain. But his love for them notwithstanding, to the end of his life he never suffered a dog to live in his house. A dog lived in the yard, the family in the house.
I do not make a moral judgment here on keeping a dog in one’s home. This vignette, however, is illustrative of the conception my grandfather had of the distance between a master and his pet. And this was a common conception at the time in which he was raised – common across the U.S.
I believe that in a Catholic future society, monster animal charities would not exist, and animal doctoring would be a rarer profession. Certainly there are legitimate reasons for veterinarians to practice medicine. Many farmers rely on animals for their livelihoods, which animals are so costly to replace, or so valuable when ready for sale, that they merit the attention of a veterinarian when ill. And while I do not see anything wrong with the treatment of one’s pet per se, the desire to keep it alive can easily become disordered. Pets can bring us joy; it is true. But they do not have immortal souls.
And so I return to my earlier point: Help a man before an animal. Care for the latter when it is convenient, but remember their place below us. How ridiculous to dispense for a dog rescue in Bali, when there is a beggar down the street…
What disproportion there must be for such “charities” to exist. Rather than a legitimate, healthful organ, each one is a cancer grown rapidly out of control. And they are not benign: Whatever “good” they effect is offset by a kind of blindness. That is, man is becoming blind to his place over nature.
I recall a brief aside from a priest who explained in an interview that today’s low tastes stem from a disordered preference for the inferior good in a man’s soul. Having an aversion to higher things, the disordered man prefers a good, which, while not evil in itself, is clearly lesser in the order of things. And he never reaches for the higher good.
You always hear of someone well-off in the world who has donated a small fortune so dogs can be rescued in Bali. But how open are his coffers for the poor?
“Give to the poor only your superfluous…” as one Pontiff wisely taught; but understand the value of human life! If one is going to give at all, his first priority should be the aid of his fellow man. The least of all the homeless, the most corrupted and pitiful soul, is greater still than any animal on earth.
The denial of this fact comes with the Leveling of Everything, the Revolution. Man has not kingship over nature; man and nature are equal; man is even no more than an animal! Madness.
This “leveling” between animal and man is felt everywhere. The poor and middle-class take on large debts for animal surgeries or treatments for an animal they see as “part of the family”. A dog or a cat is not a member of the family. It is property. Insofar as a dog is under one’s yoke and rod, one should keep it in good health where possible – but never to the point that the family’s finances are in danger. Least of all, a man should not make the welfare of animals across the world his concern.
Pets were viewed differently in the last century. My grandfather grew up a hillbilly in the Ozarks, and treasured his hounds enough that he nearly got into a gunfight when one was cruelly slain. But his love for them notwithstanding, to the end of his life he never suffered a dog to live in his house. A dog lived in the yard, the family in the house.
I do not make a moral judgment here on keeping a dog in one’s home. This vignette, however, is illustrative of the conception my grandfather had of the distance between a master and his pet. And this was a common conception at the time in which he was raised – common across the U.S.
I believe that in a Catholic future society, monster animal charities would not exist, and animal doctoring would be a rarer profession. Certainly there are legitimate reasons for veterinarians to practice medicine. Many farmers rely on animals for their livelihoods, which animals are so costly to replace, or so valuable when ready for sale, that they merit the attention of a veterinarian when ill. And while I do not see anything wrong with the treatment of one’s pet per se, the desire to keep it alive can easily become disordered. Pets can bring us joy; it is true. But they do not have immortal souls.
And so I return to my earlier point: Help a man before an animal. Care for the latter when it is convenient, but remember their place below us. How ridiculous to dispense for a dog rescue in Bali, when there is a beggar down the street…
Posted February 4, 2026
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