What makes them so different?

Ever since I was a child I have seen non-human animals as equal to myself and others around me. Sometimes I feel that films such as Disney’s ‘The Lion King’, ‘Oliver and Company’ and ‘Pocahontas’ shaped this viewpoint. I mean I spent quite a few years truly believing that my toys were secretly alive, too many years to admit, so Disney clearly influences me on some level… but did they shape this belief, and if they did, is it wrong? Am I incorrect? Are we humans somehow different to every other animal species on the planet, in some league above them and is that why it is okay for us to exploit them in every conceivable way? Which we do, and many people (if not most people) don’t even question these exploitative practices.

As an adult I know that to have my viewpoints respected they have to be justified, especially when my viewpoints do not align with the mainstream ideology. People find out I am a vegetarian, and I am asked why. Is it an ethical reason? If so, why? I, on the other hand, am not allowed to question why someone eats meat if I want to keep the opinion of others towards myself positive.

It is a kind of running joke, semi-joke, in my family that they believe I wouldn’t save a human over an animal if I had a gun to my head. And where most people would instantly save the human without hesitation, I can’t help but feel a little torn in my gut. Why does the human deserve to live more than an animal?  Of course, in reality I would probably have to let the animal die purely because of social pressure to accept the idea that we humans are superior, and thus have the right to survive over other species. I mean even writing this I can’t help but be like, obviously I would save the person, but then at the exact same time I’m like, but why!?

Why are we better? What is it that sets us apart? We are different, yes, but are we better?

Emotionally we appear to be matched (if not bested) by several other species – most cetaceans, the great apes, elephants and even the animals we share our homes with (dogs)… there is countless anecdotal evidence for this, as well as scientific evidence.

Intellectually we on the surface seem superior because we have technology and weapons, yet why would a dolphin need a gun? Why would an elephant need a computer? And where these non-human animals do need to improvise and create tools, they do… even birds use tools…

Physiologically we are all considered sentient and have the ability to suffer and feel pain, this is a general understanding accepted by science for all vertebrates and some invertebrates.

Is it that we have language? But all animals communicate, does language have to be words and syntax and grammar to be a language? Is dolphin echolocation not language? They have names for each other, and dialects. They also understand our syntax and grammar, even though they do not use it themselves. Is communication through body language not language? Dogs are able to communicate their emotions and desires to the other animals around them (including humans) with very little verbal communication, but it isn’t language… because… why? Why is the way we communicate some special, defining phenomena?

Is it that we can read and write? Because I’m pretty sure an illiterate human has the same rights as a literate one.

We judge other animals so critically because they do not live as we do, because they do not require the same things we require.

Or maybe they are different to us because we are able to enslave them? Because we are able to exploit them, to farm them, to mass produce them, to abuse them, to force them to entertain us… but isn’t that something that also happens to other humans? With enough psychological manipulation and damage you can coerce anyone and anything into behaving in any way, no matter how degrading, if they think it is going to keep them alive. If you were stolen from your home as a child and placed into an unfamiliar environment, an unenriched environment, surrounded by others who don’t communicate in the same way you do, and if you were not in control of your own food source – would you not behave as instructed if that was the only way you were to receive sustenance and in some cases comfort?

I don’t know, maybe I am wrong in the way I see the other species we share our world with. Maybe we are superior, but as someone who doesn’t subscribe to any form of religion and as someone who believes in science and as someone with eyes who can actually see passed the fur or the feathers, I just can’t see why we would be.

And finally, I would much rather be wrong and try my hardest to protect the rights of those less than us, than to be happy exploiting them because they aren’t as intelligent as us, or because they don’t have the same spectrum of emotions as us… or… God forbid… because they don’t understand syntax!