HOW WE DESCRIBE ANIMALS (AND OUR SELVES)

“Animals are trained, humans taught. Animals have fur, humans hair. Animals operate by instinct, while people are moved by plans and ideas. A newborn baby is a cub, puppy, or calf while people come into the world as babies and are soon transformed into children. An animal might be an adolescent, but only a person is a teenager. An adult animal will be either male or female, but never a man or woman. An animal is killed, but only a person can be murdered. A dead animal makes a carcass, whereas a dead person becomes a corpse. Indeed, animals decay and disappear entirely after death, while only humans, so we tell ourselves, can hope to find some kind of coherent, soulful existence on the other side. Animals die. Only you and I pass-over.”

Quote from ‘The Moral Lives Of Animals’ by Dale Peterson