Reply #: Albert Schweitzer, the greatest of humanitarians, said

[hyphenate]

"Until he extends his circle of compassion to ALL living things, man will not himself find peace."


Henry Beston said:
"The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth." ~Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

Voltaire wrote:
"People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines.... It appears to me, besides, that can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel."


It is nothing but ignorance to say that man is above animals, because it is so obvious to many of us that animals are truly and really above us.

They kill only for need--they do not kill in the name of pleasure, of sadism, of pure delight at the plight of those smaller than ourselves. They do not make crucial judgements about people based on their outward appearance. They do not lie, they do not have selfishness, and they do not show two faces to the world. They have unconditional love, and they do nothing to harm another. They do not have conspiracies, they do not plot against others and they do not have spurious reasons to cheat, make falsehoods or trump others. They do not wage war against the innocent, nor do they hold grudges long after the treasons are over. They lick our faces, they purr in our ears and ease our pain and misery, without expecting anything but love in return.

How dare anyone try to make human beings out to be superior than any animal, as it is humankind that kills, lies, hates and tortures for reasons that animals will never understand or need to know.

Hate humans? I, too, have much disdain for humanity, and would gladly live among the beasts without further human contact only for the reason that I am appreciated as a living being by those who judge purely on the soul, the simple needs and the uniqueness of my character. Anyone who judges on more than these reasons is truly a traitor to humanity itself.