Animals are inferior to humans in every respect. And I will append that the more complex the organism, the higher the level of suffering. Sure, all living things should be spared of suffering, but if there is one species on this planet that deserves compassion, that is homo sapiens. We are so conscious and we understand so many things; our minds can be so noisy, so convoluted; our bicameral brains so slapdash and conflicting; our emotions so powerful as well as our bonds to everything we hold dear; our higher-order intentionalities sometimes plaguing, our many relationships begotten by a warped psychology and quirks that we did not pick - all these things which animals are incapable of even contemplating make me feel sorry for humankind.
Someone once pointed out that animals have never caused anything like the devastation in Hiroshima. Well, that's because animals are not rational or smart enough to create an atomic bomb. But all one has to do to witness the callous carnage in the animal kingdom is to switch to National Geographic or the Discovery channel. Take a look. No dialogues or compromise for they are incapable of this. Just kill or be killed. And about atomic bombs... Who's to say that chimps, dogs, or even beavers will not evolve into sophisticated killing machines capable of inventing something far worse than the grotesque mushroom cloud? Perhaps give them just a few million years...
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