Ezekiel 18:4 says, The soul who sins shall die,
which implies that a son is not to be punished for the sin of his father. So why did God say he would turn his wrath against animals for the sins of humanity? Calvin explains that as animals were created for humanity’s use, so they must experience a lot in common with man. It is then no matter of wonder, that the condemnation of him, who enjoys a sovereignty over the whole earth, should reach to animals. And we know that the world was not made subject to corruption willingly…but because the contagion from Adam’s fall diffused itself through heaven and earth.
Therefore, animals and all the earth itself bear marks of God’s wrath, not because they have provoked it through their own fault, but because the whole world is involved in man’s curse.
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3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.