Churches and Animal Welfare
It is claimed by U.F.A.W. (University Fellowship of Animal Welfare) that a recent proclamation by the Church in Scotland is the first public avowal by any Church that kindness to animals is an acknowledged article of the Christian creed. Such kindness has doubtless been implied rather than specifically asserted. Its absence in the Bible has been often noticed, in contrast with both Buddhism and Mahomedanism. Mahomet himself laid great stress on kindness to animals, and there are extant some charm- ing stories of his approval of particular acts of kindness, one towards a woman who saved a nestful of birds. It remains that kindness to animals has flourished in Britain as perhaps nowhere else in the world, in spite of the abrupt illogical distinctions between game, vermin and the rest of the animals. Certainly protection of birds has long had its headquarters well established in England, and its influence steadily extends.
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