#animal

The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for lists. ↗

— H. Allen Smith

#differs #his #human #human animal #lesser

We were restless for ages...After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian. ↗

— Dodie Smith

#humor #age

How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without even making a sound, to another soul. ↗

— Frances Hodgson Burnett

#communication #frances-hodgson-burnett #language #little-princess #soul

If language naturally evolves to serve the needs of tiny rodents with tiny rodent brains, then what's unique about language isn't the brilliant humans who invented it to communicate high-level abstract thoughts. What's unique about language is that the creatures who develop it are highly vulnerable to being eaten. ↗

— Temple Grandin

#language #communication

What sets humans apart from animals is that we have to walk around saying how smart we are, and animals just live their lives. ↗

— Chanctetinyea J.J. Ouellette

#communication #intelligence #pseudo-intelligence #wisdom #communication

Bad is that often wildlife trafficking is described as a “victimless” crime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many of the trafficked items come from murdered animals; Rhinoceros Horn, Ivory and Tiger skins; and hundreds of thousands of birds and animals die in transit in the most horrible circumstances imaginable. Just because they cannot communicate with us does not mean they are not victims. They feel, fear and die, just like humans. ↗

— Christopher Gérard

#animals #communication

Didn't people consider what could happen if armies of farm animals united in revolt? ↗

— J.D. Robb

#farm-animals #humor #revolt #death

In the end, it is our defiance that redeems us. If wolves had a religion – if there was a religion of the wolf – that it is what it would tell us. ↗

— Mark Rowlands

#defiance #heart #inspiring #learning #philosophy

Some animal rights activists are demanding vegetarianism, even veganism now, or nothing. But since only 4 or 5 percent of Americans claim to be vegetarians, 'nothing' is the far more likely outcome. I ask these activists to weigh the horrors of Bladen County's industrial farms and the Tar Heel slaughterhouse against the consequences of doing nothing to alleviate the hour-to-hour sufferings of its victims. Is not a life lived off the factory farm and a death humanely inflicted superior to the terrible lives we know they lead and the horrible deaths we know they suffer in Bladen County today? ↗

— Steven M. Wise

#animal-welfare #animals #cafos #factory-farms #suffering

Taggle looked up at her, his amber eyes as deep as the loneliness Kate had felt before he became her friend. "The traditional thing," he said slowly, "involves the river and a sack. ↗

— Erin Bow

#friendship #love #sacrifice #talking-animals #death