The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Animal Ethics

Can they not see how, among the things made by Our hands, We have created livestock they control, and made them obedient, so that some can be used for riding, some for food, some for other benefits, and some for drink? Will they not give thanks? [Qur’an 36: 71–73]

This is just one of several Qur’anic statements about animals in relation to human beings. How different religions conceptualize animals and their place in the cosmos affects the way their adherents treat them in life and death, and this treatment must be answered for in the life after death, when people will be rewarded or punished accordingly. This much seems to be a common factor in most world religions, as described in this major collection of essays. How this works out in practice is sometimes far from the aspirations of the sacred texts.