An excerpt from “Kindred Spirits” by Dr. Allen Schoen, D.V.M., M.S.
Since the beginnings of civilization, we humans have considered ourselves the caretakers of all animals. But we are not simply farmers who take care of our livestock for our own food production, or herders who tend to our horses for our own utilitarian purposes. Our role as caretaker goes much deeper. As we dare to accept that animals … are able to think, that they have emotions, we realize that we have another level of commitment and responsibility to them: to respect and care for them as living beings with internal lives, not just as creatures with physical bodies. It is absolutely imperative that we all share this luscious planet Earth with each of its inhabitants – two legged, four legged, finned, winged, scaled – in a respectful and thoughtful way.
