Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect

I wish everyone could read this book - I honestly believe it would change the world.

What makes us similar to animals? What makes us different from animals? What makes us different from each other, especially those who do not share our emotions or thought patterns? The author indicates that emotions are especially significant in sharing experience, and in deciding with whom we share that experience. Almost no one would choose to abuse a human being of low intellectual capacity who looks at us with a trusting smile, and almost no one would sympathize with an intellectual equal who treats such a person with cold cruelty. When we categorize other creatures who share something significant into neatly stereotyped compartments, we often find we are amazingly wrong. The author suggests that when we expand our awareness, we are often positively rewarded beyond our expectations. We can never treat animals as equals, but we can never degrade them without degrading ourselves. If we should discover creatures who are our technological and intellectual superiors, we should hope they will treat us better than we have treated other conscious creatures. It's an interesting thesis,and it's interesting to think of the alternatives.