Paul’s words, “Remember those who are … being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured” (Hebrews 13:3). Surely you care enough to imagine the pain this creation of God feels as the machine breaks his bones, sending him sprawling across the prairie? What is the animal anticipating as this human grabs him, wraps his mouth with duct tape and tosses him like a bag of garbage across the back of the snowmobile and heads to a local bar to show off his trophy?

Can the wolf comprehend what it means to be the object of such hatred and derision? Can the human grasp that the existence of the subject of his loathing and torment was celebrated as a gift from God when, in Genesis, chapter one, “God made the wild animals of the Earth of every kind,” and “God saw that it was good.”

Does the wolf torturer have the capacity to contemplate what it means that “God created humankind in his image”? Yes, humans, including him, in God’s own image. There in Genesis 1:27. It’s an image imbued with the sacred responsibility God assigned humans “for caring for the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and all the wild animals of the Earth.”

It was the sixth day of Creation, the day before God rested, when “God saw that everything God had made was good, and indeed, it was very good.” It appears that a Wyoming man named Cody Roberts decided there are exceptions, that God’s creation of the wolf was not “very good,” that Wyoming law defining this animal as a predator trumped God’s law.

Allegations have been published in news outlets around the world (congratulations, Wyoming) alleging Roberts spotted the wolf and chased it down with his snowmobile. After rendering the animal disabled, he duct-taped his mouth shut. He then brought it the Green River Bar in Daniel to entertain his drinking buddies at the expense of this helpless creature. After snapping selfies, the coward hauled the frightened wolf out behind the bar and shot it to death, thus bringing the animal’s suffering and pain to an end.

Inconceivably, in the eyes of Wyoming law, Roberts did very little wrong. It appears the Wyoming Game and Fish Department quietly arranged for Roberts to get a slap on the wrist, i.e., a $250 fine. Under Wyoming statutes, Roberts did nothing wrong when he chased the wolf on his snowmobile and caused the animal’s severe injuries.

If Roberts had simply driven away on his snowmobile and left the wolf alone on the prairie to die an agonizing death, he’d have saved himself $250. Alternatively, if the wolf had died when struck by the snowmobile, Roberts could have legally taken the wolf’s corpse to the bar, enjoyed the laughs, and bought a round of drinks for less than that measly $250 fine resulting from his debauchery. That Wyoming law doesn’t protect these animals is a shame upon lawmakers, not an invitation to abuse.

In God’s eye, Roberts may not get off so easy. “The least of these” Jesus speaks of in Matthew 25 are not only human beings. There’s a special place in the heart of the Divine for the most vulnerable, whether suffering on America’s southern border, starving in Gaza or being chased down by a snowmobile in the Wyoming wilderness.

We are all God’s creatures. The difference between humans and animals is not the ability to feel fear and pain, but in the obligation of humans to protect animals from both.