“We can argue about their intelligence (which we would likely define in human-centric terms anyway), their ability to understand human language, or even the extent to which they really understand and know the world around them, but there’s no argument that can convincingly show that animals don’t feel pain, and that they have no interest in avoiding that pain. If anything, animals are more sensitive to the world around them than we are, given their heightened sensory abilities.”

—  Bob Torres

Source: Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (2007), p. 25

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We can argue about their intelligence (which we would likely define in human-centric terms anyway), their ability to un…" by Bob Torres?
Bob Torres photo
Bob Torres 7
American podcaster

Related quotes

Carl Sagan photo

“Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.”

"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1992) (co-written with Ann Druyan)
Context: Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.

Yukihiro Matsumoto photo

“Computers are not very smart. They don't understand human language, so we have to tell them what to do in a language that both humans and computers can understand.”

Yukihiro Matsumoto (1965) Japanese computer scientist

Yukihiro Matsumoto " I'm a Mormon, Ruby Author and a World-changer https://youtube.com/watch?v=bkh0gPf4Noc" by ComeUntoChrist.org on 2013-08-12.

Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Samuel Butler photo
Martin Amis photo
Ingrid Newkirk photo

“Every animal has his or her story, his or her thoughts, daydreams, and interests. All feel joy and love, pain and fear, as we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt. All deserve that the human animal afford them the respect of being cared for with great consideration for those interests or left in peace.”

Ingrid Newkirk (1949) British-American activist

"Every Week There is More Reason to Feel Empathy for Animals" https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ingrid-newkirk/every-week-there-is-more_b_216409.html, Huffington Post, 17 July 2009.
2009

John Gray photo

Related topics