Why do we choose those that we are familiar with over those that we cannot familiarize with instantaneously? Just because animals cannot speak multiple languages, or urbanize acres of land, does not mean that they are lesser than us. Do we not both eat, breath, and communicate with the world? We have come to accept the fact that we are ‘the greater race,’ we have been told so and have thought so throughout history.
But what of the dolphin? Or the pig? Has science not shown us that they equal us in intelligence? But yet we still slaughter them and disregard them as lowly beasts. They may not walk on two legs, or are clearly understandable, but does that really mean we are better? We think that we cannot share the land, so instead take it over. We think that we cannot listen to animals simply because we cannot understand them, so we view them as ‘dumb’ and ‘unreasoning.’
But maybe we’re the unreasoning and dumb beasts. If living things are our equals in needs and thoughts, why not treat them as equals in general? Aldo Leopold states it clearly: “If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not.”
ANONYMOUS
GREENSEA 