Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated, and seen through by the passion of individuals.
- Margaret Mead
Those passionate individuals and those unknown faces come every corner of the world. They help maintain the thin line between civilization and barbarism. They live and die to reduce immense suffering in the world. And I continue to live because of them and help them in any way I can.
This time, those passionate individuals are these handfuls of Catholic theologians who are supporting Happy's case in NYC court. You can read about the case to free Happy, an Elephant from Bronx zoo after 49 years of captivity.
Most Sapiens cannot sit at home quietly even in the midst of a pandemic but they don't even care nor connect nor understand Happy's sufferings who have been in captivity her entire life. Yes, I do get angry while encountering these self-centered Sapiens.
Our central argument as Catholic theologians is that Happy is not a thing for us to confine, use, and put on display in a zoo (even in an attempt to produce a good outcome), but rather a particular kind of creature who God made to flourish in a particular way—a way some academics refer to as a telos.
As we explain below, we believe Happy cannot flourish as this kind of creature while captive in the Bronx Zoo and that she would be significantly better able become the kind of creature God made her to be in a sanctuary. Nearly all theologians now agree that the Biblical dominion God has given human beings over creation is not a license to use and dominate, but rather a command to be caretakers and stewards.
Nonhuman animals like Happy have been created to fit into a particular place within the order of God’s creation, an order which human beings are bound to respect. Non-human animals belong to God, not to us. They are God’s creatures, not ours.- Read the entire petition by these passionate Catholic theologians here
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