Animal suffering in the Old Testament

Jeremiah 14:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. 14:2 Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 14:3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. 14:4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads. 14:5 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. 14:6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage. 14:7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. (World English Bible, public domain. See Joel 1 for a similar passage.)

The above passage indicates a time of animal suffering in Israel, as a result of a drought. Apparently the drought was a consequence of sinfulness in Israel.

For centuries, people have wrestled with the question of suffering in the world. This post will not attempt to present a solution to those wrestlings. However, one aspect of suffering, not as commonly dealt with as human suffering, or, in particular, my suffering, is the suffering of animals. There are at least two important questions related to this topic. The first is the general question: "How could a good God allow animals to suffer?" I refer you to this post, by BioLogos, on this topic.

The second question is "How could God have used natural selection, which involves animal death, to bring about the present diversity of animals?" and the related "How could God have used millions of years of natural selection to bring about the life forms we now have?" The second question implies an argument for young-earth creationism -- "wouldn't it have been more merciful for God to have specially created each type of animal a few thousand years ago, than to have used natural selection for millions of years, to accomplish basically the same thing?"

A few remarks on that subject. First, the vast majority of land/air dwelling organisms are not animals, but plants. Second, natural selection does not always require animal suffering. In many, maybe most cases, animals die of old age without having reproduced successfully, rather than being torn limb from limb by a predator. In many others, they die of starvation, or cold, or disease, or parasites. Some of these deaths may be painful, but perhaps some aren't. (I won't claim, as some have, that animals cannot suffer.) This post, again, from BioLogos, considers suffering and natural selection, and probably brings up ideas you haven't had before.

Some young-earth creationists argue that God wouldn't have allowed natural selection, over a long period, to bring about the organisms which are alive today, in part because God doesn't like animal suffering. But some, maybe the very same, young-earth creationists argue that the Ark held no more than about a thousand different kinds of land animals, of all kinds, and the variety that we have today is due to natural selection, acting much more rapidly than mainstream scientists believe it did. But if that was true (and there are good reasons for doubting it) then lots of animal suffering and death must have occurred after the Ark landed.

Back to animal suffering. If the Flood was, indeed, world-wide (many Bible scholars doubt this) then there would have been massive, world-wide, animal suffering from drowning.

There are many references to hunting and fishing in the Bible, without, so far as I know, a single condemnation of these practices. Jesus, Himself, may have caught fish. 

The Old Testament has lots of references to the use of live animals, which were killed, as part of the rituals of sacrifice. Leviticus 4 is one of these. See 2 Chronicles 29 for a description of the sacrifice of thousands of animals on a single occasion.

Job 4 mentions animal suffering: 10 The roaring of the lion,
    and the voice of the fierce lion,
    the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey.
    The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.

So does Psalm 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger,
    but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.

I see no scriptural justification for being cruel to animals. In fact, there is plenty of scripture teaching that we should care for them.

Thanks for reading!