Kindness to  Animals 

חסד לבעלי חיים

God has compassion on all His creatures, people and animals alike. We too must adopt that same approach. 

If a person boards a ship with an animal, and a storm arose at sea, what do people do? They cast the animal into the sea and spare the person, because one does not have mercy on an animal as one has mercy on a person. But the way of the Holy One, blessed be He, is not so; rather, just as He has mercy on people, so He has mercy on animals. Know that this is so, as at the moment that the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to destroy His world in the generation of the flood, at the moment that they sinned, He drew a parallel between people and animals, as it is stated: “The Lord said: I will obliterate man whom I have created from the face of the earth; from man to animal, to crawling creatures, to birds of the heavens” (Genesis 6:7).<footnote data-num="187"/> And when He came to reconcile Himself<footnote data-num="188"/> with the world, just as He reconciled Himself with humankind and had mercy on them, so, too, He had mercy on the animals. This can be derived from what we read regarding that matter: “God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the animals that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 8:1).

The suffering of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi<footnote data-num="189"/>…came due to an incident and ceased due to an incident. It came due to an incident; what is the incident? A certain calf was being led to the slaughter, and it went and hung its head on the corner of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s garment and wept. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to it: Go, as you were created for this purpose. The angels said: Since he was not compassionate to the calf, let suffering come on him. His suffering ceased due to an incident, as one day the maidservant of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was sweeping his house. There were young weasels lying there, and she swept them away. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to her: Leave them, as it is written: “The Lord is good to all; and His mercy extends to all His creations” (Psalms 145:9). The angels said: Since he was compassionate to the weasels, we will have compassion on him; and he was cured. <source>(Tanĥuma [Buber], Noah; Bava Metzia 85a) </source>