Why Does God Allow Animals to Suffer?

The Aish Rabbi Replies

Thank you for your important question. Unfortunately, there is no really satisfying answer to this. The basic response is that there is a fundamental difference between Divine Providence as it applies to man and as it applies to animals. People are granted a much higher degree of Heavenly protection. Every year on the High Holidays, we are judged whether or not we will be granted another year of life. Now there are complex philosophical questions precisely what is decided every year and its interplay with other factors. (For example, will a person’s individual judgment be affected by a national judgment (say, that God decrees a nation will suffer famine or war), can a person’s judgment be influenced by his fellow’s free will if his fellow decides to harm him, etc.) Regardless, we can state much more definitively that a human being will only die if God specifically willed it – or at least acquiesced to it.

Animals, however, are judged on an entirely different scale. God determines whether a species will survive or not, without regard for individual members of that species. Thus, if a fox wants to lunch on a rabbit – or a hunter wants to shoot a fox – whether or not the victim will survive depends more on skills of the pursuer than on God’s providential guard over the terrified prey. (This is the opinion of the majority of authorities – see for example Rambam, Moreh Nevuchim 3:17; Rabbeinu Bachya Genesis 18:19. (You can find a lengthy list of sources here.) I will add that Chassidic thought disagrees with this – seeing God’s providence as lovingly watching over every insect, every plant, and every leaf in creation. This, however, is not the opinion of virtually all early authorities.)

Sadly, the same is true if man’s cruel environmental practices destroy the world’s fauna (as well as flora) – or if his agricultural practices cause animals to suffer. God may intervene if we begin driving a species He chooses to preserve to extinction. But if we just harm or pain individual animals, God is much less likely to intercede. (This of course has nothing to do with a person’s judgment in Heaven for his heartless behavior – which will surely be quite harsh. We are only discussing whether or not God will protect animal life from the capriciousness of man.)

Thus, if people exercise their free will and act irresponsibly towards the environment, it will only harm people to the extent they deserve (although how a lot of the human suffering we witness in this world is “deserved” is generally beyond our understanding), while animals will be affected even though (of course) they have done no wrong. It is sad to see this in practice. But it is consistent with the manner in which God operates the world - and in many ways allows man's free will to ruin it.

As you also noted, a lot of the suffering animals endure in this world has nothing to do with man. The animal kingdom contains many carnivorous predators – whose survival depends on consuming animals lower down the food chain. And those predators themselves may find themselves food for yet higher predators. This is simply the way the world works. It appears inhumane, but it is natural and expected. And this raises a second question: Why did God create a world based on such cruelty? Surely, a perfect God could have come up with a more benign system – in which animals eat nothing but plants – and do so without multiplying endlessly and overrunning the earth!

The answer is that as a matter of fact this is not the way the world was originally created. From the time of Adam until the Flood, all animals were herbivorous, eating plants and nothing else. Only after the Flood and the fall of man did God permit both mankind and animals to eat meat (see Genesis 1:29-30 and 9:3). And if fact, that will again be the arrangement in the End of Days when the righteous will return to Eden. See this past response for a further discussion of this. And see also here regarding why God permitted the consumption of meat after the Flood.