ABSTRACT
Human-animal interactions are a universal feature of life on planet Earth, and they are often accompanied by a good deal of emotion. For millennia, the issue of non-human animal emotions has been closely bound up with the theological and ethical problem of how to justify humans’ domination over animals. In fact, most of them pay more attention to the animal-human binary than they do to other common forms of domination. Some debate surrounds the extent to which animal sacrifice – a key features of traditional Judaism – continued to be necessary for Christians, and it is usually argued that Jesus’ sacrifice obviates the need for it. Jesus himself ate fish, and almost certainly lamb, and quasi-sacrificial practices, such as killing and eating the fatted lamb on Easter, were and are to this day common in many Christian communities.
