Unfortunately, most people get their values from religion, and the concept of religion is inherently antithetical to animal dignity and is a device repeatedly used to harm and devalue them. Every time I hear the phrase "the sanctity of HUMAN life," I'm reminded of its corollary, "the INsanctity of nonhuman life." Every time I hear "each and every HUMAN life has absolute value," I'm reminded of its corollary, "and nonhuman life has ABSOLUTELY no value." Think of the murder of Cecil, the African lion. Are nonhuman animals TROPHIES? Are they "things" (as Jesuit priest and philosopher Joseph Rickaby called them ("brute beasts").

In “Catholic Exemplars: Recent Popes, Medieval Saints, and Animal Liberation,” Philosophy professor Judith Barad premises Aquinas as an “exemplar” because he concluded that animals and plants have souls, although they are not the same as human souls; he also acknowledge that animals have feelings. To counter such a depiction of Aquinas who helped embed speciesism more deeply into Catholicism than it had been before, Aquinas declared “by divine province that non-rational beings should serve the higher species.” Aquinas regarded animals as non-rational, an idea that in turn influenced centuries of Christian thought. FALSE!

It is like my father always said: If their are abortions, what's a animal? How true! The 'key' to all these unneccessary experiments is simply MONEY. All these places know they are useless--it is greed and pride--promised money-- and they do not care. My father also said very intelligent college people lacked common sense when he was in college many years ago. God help us--the world is going crazy. That is why some of these experiments are done on ships far from land. They think they are smart. I wish the animals could do this on them and see how they would like the pain. Pray everyone.