{"id":673866,"date":"2026-05-16T02:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673866\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T02:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:50:10","slug":"exclusive-brethren-sect-denies-telling-members-to-kill-their-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673866\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Brethren sect denies telling members to kill their pets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/religion\" title=\"prominent sect\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">prominent sect<\/a> has denied telling members to euthanise their pets, but confirmed they have been urged to get rid of them.The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/my-church-or-the-dog-brethren-orders-members-to-purge-pets-sparking-fears-of-global-cull-20260511-p5zvrp.html\" title=\"Sydney Morning Herald\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> reports a letter was read from church leadership to meetings across the country earlier this morning with the directive.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/78c0afbd-17af-48ac-ba34-7dad49ae1c84.jpeg\"   alt=\"The headquarters of the Exclusive Brethren in Sydney's west.\"\/>The headquarters of the Exclusive Brethren in Sydney&#8217;s west. (Kate Geraghty)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The ownership of such an animal, let alone it being kept at a brother&#8217;s home, is clearly wrong,&#8221; the letter read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are reports of some Brethren having reverted to owning pets, including dogs and other animals, which practice has been clearly spoken against in ministry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The letter specified birds, mice and cats were also included in the directive, not just dogs.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1960s the sect instructed members to euthanise their pets, stating that giving them away was sinful.<\/p>\n<p>One blind man was reportedly cast out of the church for refusing to get rid of his guide dog.<\/p>\n<p>But the sect has now issued a statement denying reports members were told to euthanise their pets.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Very few families in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church would keep pets, as we generally avoid distractions from family, faith and God, such as television, radio, or pet ownership,&#8221; the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Following a traumatic incident in which a child was attacked by a dog at the home of a church member, our church&#8217;s position on pets was restated to parishioners in May 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was not a &#8216;new directive&#8217;, but simply a reminder of a principle that was established some time ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/0de20f18-8b13-4034-b81c-dcf0df9b3f3a.jpeg\"   alt=\"Stock image of a labradoodle.\"\/>Exclusive Brethren members have been told to get rid of their dogs. (Gsquare, Pixabay, CC0)<\/p>\n<p>The statement suggested the pets could be given to willing neighbours, colleagues or an animal shelter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are aware of untrue and distressing online commentary which has misconstrued this as members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church being told to euthanise their pets,&#8221; it read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The church would never condone cruelty to any living creature, and this position is being strongly reinforced to our congregation. We have the utmost respect for all of God&#8217;s creations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are an estimated 16,000 members of the Exclusive Brethren in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The secretive sect practices separating itself from society at large, including not voting in elections.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, the Liberals came under scrutiny in last year&#8217;s election after it was revealed members of the sect were participating in organised campaigns backing the party.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent sect has denied telling members to euthanise their pets, but confirmed they have been urged to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-673866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}