Question

Hello Rabbi, I have a somewhat strange question. Maybe it isn’t really a question at all, but this is what I’m trying to figure out.

Today I heard a story about a pig in Hong Kong that attacked its slaughterer and killed him. As expected, the discussion in the comments was populist, and quite a few people said, “If someone comes to kill you, rise early to kill him first.” And even though the discussion there was emotional and shallow, I’m wondering whether there might be something to what they were saying.

I do hold, of course, like the Rabbi’s view that animals do not have rights; rather, we have obligations toward them. But still, if an animal kills the person who is trying to kill it, is that a tragedy, like an electrician who is injured on the job? Or maybe one could say that it isn’t a tragedy. You were trying to kill a living creature—don’t expect it not to react and attack back. I’m not speaking only on the technical level, but even on the moral level: it is an animal’s basic right to defend itself. If so, this is not a tragedy; this is a case of “if someone comes to kill you, rise early to kill him first.”

Maybe I’m babbling. I’d be glad if the Rabbi would tell me that. Or maybe there is something here.