Jan. 12, 2025, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

In cold weather, compassion extends to pets

By Mike Haynes

                My wife and I automatically change the channel when certain public service announcements come on, at least long enough to ensure that they’re over.

                It isn’t that we disagree with the message; the images and sounds presented are just too real for us.

                Most of the PSAs are TV spots for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The sad but cute faces of puppies and other pets filmed in filthy or freezing conditions are shown with the intention of generating sympathy and support for the organization.

                That’s a good motive, and there’s nothing wrong with the ad campaign. For us, though – and especially Kathy – it’s preaching to the choir. We don’t need to see helpless animals that appear to be in pain gazing at a camera, seeming to say, “Please help me.”

                Kathy and her mom, Peggy, are longtime volunteers with the Amarillo SPCA – not connected with the national organization that runs the pleas on TV. On a regular basis, they see dogs and cats brought to the animal shelter that have been starved, mistreated or abandoned. So for them, seeing pets on TV in similar circumstances is not motivation, but overload.

They and the other local volunteers are especially mindful of pets in the winter. We’ve just moved into a time of sub-32 temperatures when outdoor water bowls freeze up and some animals live in snow, ice and howling wind.

In this farming and ranching region, many of us give little thought to what outside animals might face, and certainly, some are more hardy than others. The agriculture industry wouldn’t survive without herds of cattle roaming pastures.

I grew up in the country where none of our dogs or cats lived inside, but they did have places of shelter, regular food and fresh water. Animal rescue folks probably wouldn’t think that was enough.

Other pet owners, though, simply shouldn’t own pets. Plenty of people here and everywhere treat animals like those seen on the ASPCA TV spots. And in January in the Texas Panhandle, the biting cold makes it imperative to at least offer some kind of shelter.

For Christians, a constant theme is compassion. I know, the kindness that Jesus preached and displayed was for down-and-out people, not animals. The Bible says little about the treatment of pets or livestock. And despite the messages that PETA pushed a few years ago, Jesus wasn’t a vegetarian. At the least, he ate fish, and he certainly didn’t say anything about giving up meat.  

But he did talk about a shepherd going out of his way to bring one of his 100 sheep to safety.

 People come before animals, of course. We believers in Christ expect to be in heaven for eternity, but scripture doesn’t directly address the question of whether our pets or other animals will be there, too.

                “America’s preacher” Billy Graham thought so, and so did Methodist founder John Wesley, who preached a sermon speculating that because animals suffered from the fall of man in Genesis, they, like us, will be restored to paradise when all are resurrected.

                Beloved humorist Will Rogers said, “If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

                Whatever the situation in the afterlife, we do have animals around us here and now. Compassion is a key biblical concept. If we have it for people, why wouldn’t we be expected to have it for animals, too?

                Maybe more of it could alleviate the need for those distressing pet videos on TV.