Dominion over the animals

I told you there would be musings. You've been warned. Here's one now.

An argument against vegetarianism I hear (enough that I do think about it frequently), is vegetarian is "Against God's Will" (always announced with verbal capitals).
That 'man' (I use the term in the common reference only) has "dominion over the animals" per the bible (Genesis 1:26-28.

Supposedly this and other similar bible references mean that we can do anything we want to with animals - including but not limited to the 20th century invention of factory farming, with all of its lovely accouterments of feeding livestock back to livestock (causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob or Mad Cow disease); the unbelievable overuse of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides; keeping 100s animals (birds, cows, pigs) in areas made to hold less than half that many; putting cancerous animals into the food supply; the list goes on and on.

Now just stop and think. If you are a believer in the bible, did God really mean dominion over animals to include all this?

What does dominion mean? It means power, control, sovereignty. Isn't the type of dominion that has led to factory farming the same as the control Hitler had over the Jews? Is that what God meant?

I don't think so. I think dominion means that while we may make sound decisions regarding animals, we have been charged with their care as well. That means we don't overhunt them to the point of extinction, we don't keep them in cages were they never see the light of day or put their feet on the ground. We don't take babies away from mothers.

Surely if we were "created in God's likeness", then with power comes respect, with dominance comes justice, and finally, with sovereignty comes compassion.

Or, as many vegetarians say, "I don't eat my friends".