You assert that God gave humans dominion over all the plants and animals — therefore, Man is the predilect object of God's Creation. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)
While those efforts are relatively recent, Konisky said there is a historical divide in how Christians view their relationship to the planet: «Some believe in the importance of stewardship and practice an ethic of «creation care,» while others believe in human dominion over the Earth, a belief that undermines any obligation to protect the environment.» (sciencedaily.com)
But we can highlight those traditions in philosophy that point toward a postanthropocentric ethic, and in this context it is important to recognize that there exists a tradition that is interested in the interests of individual creatures, in particular animals under human dominion Though not all its advocates prefer the language of «rights» in proposing that we recognize our obligations to animals, many do. (religion-online.org)