Eugen Drewermann on ethics towards animals

Eugen Drewermann (born 1940) is a passionate man, a psychoanalyst and a theologian. He was a Catholic priest. In 1992 he was suspended as a priest because of his theological views. In 2005 he left the Catholic Church.
From psychology and theology he looks at the relationship between humans and animals.
He once said there are three things he "hates": war, money and the way we tend to treat animals. From his experience with people, he states that fear leads people to violence and aggression, both physically and economically, also towards animals.

Fear blocks ethical behaviour

Christian dogma has raised man to the centre of the universe and the goal of evolution. Therefore everything, including the animal, is subordinate to man and exists for his benefit. As a result, no ethics towards animals has developed. But if you do not act ethically towards animals, can you do so towards people?
Ethics, we could say, aims to let people live with respect and appreciation for each other. No one obliges you to do so. But when you do, it enriches your life.
It is liberating and gives a satisfaction that you carry with you all your life and that helps to shape your personality. When people are indifferent to animals or, we might add, to the weaker members of society, they do not take an ethical position. They harm not only the other but also themselves.
And time and again it turns out that whoever once ignores the suffering of another finds himself on a slippery slope.
Man, certainly modern man, is aware of the finiteness and randomness of his existence (of his "contingency"). He has lost his trust in the ground of his existence. Therefore he does his utmost to create his own securities: military, social and nowadays above all economic.
He subordinates everything to them. By doing so he loses his humanity.

Our conception of God has changed, what next?

Modern secular man no longer has a God from whom he can derive his right to exist. At most he can acknowledge that there is a universal consciousness or eternal energy on which he rests. But once he has this experience, he knows it is good that he exists as he is. He no longer needs to prove himself all the time. Then he finds rest. His striving for power, for superiority and for economic growth comes to an end: that cancerous tumour that must keep growing at the cost of the organism that hosts it. Then he no longer suffers from himself and can see the weaker, including animals.
In the love between people who are themselves without fear, the other is left free while both keep their responsibility. You help the other person to go his own way in his own manner. That basic attitude can be extended to animals.
Towards animals man has a greater responsibility, because they, like children, have less control over their circumstances.
In the ever smaller free space on earth, man has to influence circumstances in such a way that animals too can keep their freedom.