heal rather than hurt

The teaching that God created the earth and all things that are upon it gives to man a special task in the presence of suffering and pain. These were not found on the earth as God first made it. They came as a result of man’s fall. Man’s challenge then is to help reverse these consequences in every way he can. As God’s steward he must heal rather than hurt, build rather than destroy, love rather than hate all nature and its creatures. “How,” asked the Prophet Joseph Smith, “will the serpent ever lose its venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition, and continue to make war upon it?” Nature is under man’s dominion but not for sport. The Father marks every sparrow’s fall, and man must pay for every act of cruelty.

The Lord’s Question: Thoughts on the Life of Response by Dennis Rasmussen. Brigham Young University Press. April 1985. Chapter Two, “Do Not I Fill Heaven and Earth?” p.18

poison of a serpent

D&C 84:72 The poison of a serpent shall not have power to harm them.

Paul, on one occasion, shook a venomous snake from his hand, and was not injured by it (Acts 28:3-6). No less remarkable is an incident from the famous march of Zion’s Camp. The members of that organization often encountered reptiles on the prairie. One day Solomon Humphrey laid himself down for a little rest, being weary. When he awoke, he saw a rattlesnake coiled up not more than a few inches from his head. Some proposed to kill it, but Brother Humphrey said, “Let it alone; we have had a good nap together.” It was on this occasion that the Prophet Joseph instructed the brethren not to kill serpents, or any other animals, unless absolutely necessary. “Men,” said he, “must first become harmless themselves, before they can expect the brute creation to be so” (Andrew Jensen, Hist. Rec., p.835).


Doctrine and Covenants Commentary by Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl. Deseret Book. 1965. p.515

partnership between man and animal

Ranchers who allowed deer, elk, and antelope herds to share grazing with their cattle were granted hunting permits as a recompense. They could either harvest their winter meat supply themselves or sell the permits to others. It was not a practice Leaphorn endorsed. Not much sportsmanship in it, he thought, but perfectly pragmatic and legal. Traditional Navajos hunted only for food, not for sport. He remembered his maternal uncle explaining to him that to make hunting deer a sport, you would have to give the deer rifles and teach them how to shoot back. His first deer hunt, and all that followed, had been preceded by the prescribed ceremony with his uncles and nephews, with the prayer calling to the deer to join in the venture, to assure the animal that cosmic eternal law would return him to his next existence in the infinite circle of life. A lot of time and work was involved in the Navajo way - the treatment of the deer hide, the pains taken to waste nothing, and, finally, the prayers that led to that first delicious meal of venison. Leaphorn had known many belagaana hunters who shared the "waste no venison" attitude, but none who bought into the ceremonial partnership between man and animal.


Tony Hillerman, The Shape Shifter. 2006. p.95

angry with their animals

I have seen men who are considered both good and great buy some people--themselves included--who would get angry with their animals and beat them in a cruel, senseless manner, even showing a murderous spirit. I have always believed that such persons would serve human beings the same way when in anger, only they are too cowardly to take the immediate consequences.


Forty Years Among the Indians: A True Yet Thrilling Narrative of the Author's Experiences Among the Natives. By Daniel W. Jones. Juvenile Instructor, Salt Lake City, UT. 1890. Chapter XLIII.

Animals, like other "good things which come of the earth. . . are made for the benefit and the use of man," but are "to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion" (D&C 59:16-20). God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the animals (Gen. 1:28), but legitimate dominion is neither coercive nor exploitive (D&C 121:34-46). He sanctions the eating of animal flesh but forbids its waste (Gen. 9:2-5; D&C 49:18-21). The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible (JST) cautions, "Surely, blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands" (JST Gen. 9:11).


Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.1, (Ludlow, Daniel H. - Edited by) ANIMALS JST Genesis 9:11

for all forms of life

It is the doctrine of the gospel... that this temporal death passed upon all forms of life, upon man and animal and fish and fowl and plant life; that Christ came to ransom man and all forms of life from the effects of the temporal death brought into the world through the Fall, and in the case of man from a spiritual death also; that this ransom includes a resurrection for man and for all forms of life.



Elder Bruce R. McConkie. "Seven Deadly Heresies," 7-8 as quoted in Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement. 2000.

The Atonement covers more than mankind. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith spoke directly to this point: "It is a very inconsistent notion which is held by some, that the resurrection will only come to human souls, that the animals and plants have no spirits and therefore are not redeemed by the sacrifice of the Son of God, and hence they are not entitled to the resurrection" (Answers to Gospel Questions, 5:7). Joseph Smith taught: "I suppose John saw beings there [in heaven], that had been saved from ten thousand times ten thousand earths like this, strange beasts of which we have no conception all might be seen in heaven. John learned that God glorified himself by saving all that his hands had made whether beasts, fowl, fishes or man" (Words of Joseph Smith, 185). The Lord promised that "all old things shall pass away, and all things shall become new,... both men and beasts, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea" (D&C 29:24).


Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement. 2000. p.83

We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.

Anna Sewell (1820-1878)