Humanity should respect animals.

[Monica]

Oh, I see what you mean. Sounds like those people have quite a bit of work to do with compassion. So yes- I suppose the order of the lessons is not so cut and dry as I was making it out to be.

Exactly! But do they really have "quite a bit of work to do?" I mean, any more than people who feel compassion for other humans but not animals?

We've just ascertained that it can happen in either order...so is one order inherently better than the other?

I actually felt compassion for animals before I did humans. My earliest memories of compassion were for the kittens my dad killed...then for the chickens, pigeons and ducks my dad killed...he made me help. I'll never forget those headless chickens flopping around...nor their eyes still blinking in shock and awareness that they'd just been beheaded.

I remember asking my dad why the bodies kept moving after they were dead...that must mean they weren't really dead yet, right? And he said "They're dead but they don't know they're dead."

What didn't know it was dead?

I remember finding a baby bird and wanting to save it...what child doesn't have that memory? That was compassion.

I wanted to save the birds my cats killed...but felt conflicted because my cats had to eat, and my parents didn't believe in buying cat food. My cats got only kitchen scraps and the occasional chicken or pigeon heads.

One time one of my cats disemboweled a lizard and I felt horrified at how much the lizard must be suffering, so I decided to put it out of its misery - a mercy killing. I must have been about 8 or 9. I got a sharp rock and proceeded to chop off the lizard's head. That lizard would...not...die!!!

I couldn't believe how fiercely that mutilated, dying creature fought for its last breath! Even though I was committing an act of mercy, it apparently didn't know that, and fought hard to live. It had to have been about a minute but seemed like many minutes before I finally succeeded in snuffing out its life. Then its lifeless eyes stared back at me, stricken, and, I imagined, betrayed.

I had no compassion for bugs. I hated them because they made my life miserable. But I had plenty of opportunities to feel compassion for animals...don't all children? Other than helping my dad butcher chickens, were my interactions with animals any different from those of other children?

Feeling compassion for animals came naturally to me. Humans, however, were a different story. Humans mistreated me. I don't remember the first time I felt compassion for a human. Probably around age 13 or so, when friends discovered I was a good listener and started telling me their problems.

By the time I fully awakened at age 21, compassion flowed readily. I saw, and still don't see, any distinction between animal and human, when it comes to compassion. It just is.

But I can understand why some people might have an easier time feeling compassion for animals than for humans. They've been hurt by humans, and haven't yet learned that not all humans hurt others.

LOL! The "Z" Word! *gasp* But I don't know why somebody would categorically refer to those folks as zealots. Though no doubt, some of them are. Zealots come from all walks of life.

That probably was a poor choice of words. Maybe...extremist? Fanatic? Crazy? Not saying they are any of those things...just saying that society tends to label them as such, because their views are considered backwards.

They always get lost in my leg hair!

Ah so men do have it worse in some ways then!

But they're also high in protein. Maybe you should bite them back!

Then I wouldn't be a very good vegetarian now would I?

Yes ants are actually a Chinese medicinal remedy, but then you already knew that.

I also remember learning in a desert survival class that fire ants are a great source of vitamin C. If one just so happens to find themselves wandering lost in a desert of course. It seems that nature always finds a way to provide...

Now that might be a very good example of to the extent necessary.

So then, I suppose the crux of the question becomes: Can humanity eat fire ants for dessert in the desert, and still have respect for them in the morning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu7vySQbgXI