Yes, it does. In particular, Leviticus in the Old Testament gives specific rules about how animals are to be slaughtered and which animals may be eaten. Leviticus is also part of the Old Testament that says slavery is permitted and gives specific rules for treating enslaved people. During the movement to abolish slavery, many abolitionists were accused of violating God’s will because the Bible accepts slavery.
However, the movement to abolish slavery included many Bible-believing Christians, just as the contemporary animal-rights movement does. People who believe in the Bible’s true message are often troubled by passages of this kind in the Old and New Testaments. Here is one possible explanation some of them might offer.
A society can absorb only a limited amount of change at one time. One could argue that God knew that if He had commanded people to abolish slavery and the practice of killing animals for food at the same time, society would have been shocked by accepting both changes at once, and most people would have stopped following the commandments altogether. Thus, by specifying rules for treating enslaved people and slaughtering animals, one could argue that God made these practices much less barbaric than they otherwise would have been—although His true intention for all people was that one day they would realise that the message of compassion should apply to all beings, including enslaved people and animals.
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