Humans generally consider themselves superior to animals. We dominate them, enslave them, kill them and eat them. We think we have the right to do this because we’re supposedly ‘smarter’ than they are. And that’s about the only difference between us — we have an intellect and they don’t. Whether this makes us superior and gives us any justification to treat them as we do is another matter altogether. If a race of aliens that were smarter than us (which wouldn’t be that hard, surely) came to the earth, would they have the right to enslave, kill and eat humans? I’m guessing most people would say no.

When we let go of the notion that we’re superior to any other lifeform, we develop a natural reverence for life. We didn’t create any of it and we therefore don’t own any of it. Every living has an innate right to exist…