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Look at Proverbs chapter 12 in verse number 10. Let me just read you two verses, and then we can talk about this idea of animals as property and what animal cruelty is and is not, okay? Look at Proverbs 12, 10. The Bible says, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. So what do we know about the book of Proverbs? The book of Proverbs is talking about, it's many times in one verse it has opposite ends of the coin, right? So we're seeing here this exact same thing in this verse in Proverbs. It says, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast. So it says, a good man, a man that's right with God, he cares about his property. It's his property. It says his beast. It belongs to him. So he cares about the life of his cow, his ox, his ass, his dog, whatever it is, he cares about it. The opposite side of this is this though. Look at the next part of the verse. But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, okay? So let me just break this down for you. There's no penalty in the Bible for someone who would go out and just harm an animal just to be cruel to it. However, the Bible is saying that someone that would do that is a wicked person, is wicked, okay? So first of all, we have to, let me define animal cruelty first of all, okay? When the Bible is talking about somebody who is cruel to his animal, it's talking about somebody who just like would go out and just like try to cause pain to a creature or to take a life of a creature for no reason, okay? For whatever, just for his own enjoyment, his or her own enjoyment. Turn to Proverbs chapter 27, Proverbs chapter 27, look at verse 23. Let me read you another verse about this. Proverbs chapter 27 and verse number 23. The Bible says, be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds. So here's the thing, folks, and here's what I've never really understood, okay? Animals, I grew up out in the country, we raised sheep, I mean, we had livestock. It doesn't make sense for a person who is a good businessman, who is a good property keeper to just go and just uselessly take the life of his animals or to not take care of his animals or to just cause pain and suffering to his animals. It doesn't make any business sense at all, okay? And that's what the Bible is saying. It says, look well to your flocks, look well to your herds. It's saying, you know, be diligent, just like it says, do a good job at work. It's saying, look well to your property, is what it's saying. And it's saying that if you're cruel to an animal, that's a wicked thing. So the reason, here's the reason why, here's the reason why. Now, when I say cruel to animals, I'm not talking about somebody who would be thinning a flock that, you know, of a herd, getting rid of some of his cattle or his sheep and taking them to market because they're not as productive as they used to be and selling them for hamburger or meat or anything like that. I'm talking about someone who would just go out and just like, just want to herd an animal. Here's the reason that the Bible is not specifically giving a punishment against that. First of all, because animals are property, but second of all, because if somebody would do something like that, like someone would just take a, I mean, there was a kid, and I don't want to get too graphic, but there was a kid in high school, when I went to high school, that I never saw it happen, but it was like a big deal in the school. And this kid, like he was like in eighth grade and he, it was a story about how he was with a bunch of other kids and there was some, you know, like some cat had kittens or something and he just took a bat and he like, he like killed one of the kittens in front of all these other kids. And it was like a huge thing in the school. Like, can you believe this guy did this? And I was just like, see like that right there is a sign of major problems elsewhere. You see what I'm saying? Somebody that would do something like that, just herd an animal for just the strict reason of just like watching something be in pain and watching something die. The reason the Bible doesn't have to have a rule against that is because there's major other problems there that are going to be punished, okay? There's major issues with somebody that would do, you know, something like that. So the Bible is definitely against that type of thing, okay? Animals, we're to have dominion over the animals. They are property to us. If you have a dog or a cat as a pet, that dog or cat is your property. That dog or cat is your property, but somebody that would just go and intentionally cause pain for no reason to an animal, there's other issues there. That's why you hear all these stories about like these people that are like crazy serial killers and they're like, oh yeah, when they were eight years old, they were doing this to animals or whatever, you know, because like that, that's what the Bible is talking about in Proverbs 12. It's saying somebody that would just intentionally be cruel to anything is like, that's, that's a sign of wickedness right there. That's a sign of something major being wrong.