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7 pages, Audio CD
First published June 13, 2016
"...I’ve been around animals all my life and I was one of those dreamers. Whether it was the chick in my parents’ garden that picked me out as its mom, the goat at our forest lodge that brightened our days with her contented bleating, or the animals I met on my daily rounds of the woodland I manage, I often wondered what was going on inside their heads. Is it really true, as scientists have long maintained, that people are the only animals capable of enjoying a full range of emotions? Has creation really engineered a unique biological path for us? Are we the only ones guaranteed a life of self-awareness and satisfaction?
If that were the case, this book would be over right now. If human beings were the result of some special biological design, we wouldn’t be able to compare ourselves to other animals."
"From my personal perspective, I am suggesting that we infuse our dealings with the living beings with which we share our world with a little more respect, as we once used to do, whether those beings are animals or plants. That doesn’t mean completely doing without them, but it does mean a certain reduction in our level of comfort and in the amount of biological goods we consume. As a reward, if we then have happier horses, goats, chickens, and pigs, if we can then observe contented deer, martens, or ravens, if one day we can listen in when the ravens call their names, then a hormone will be released into our central nervous system that will spread a feeling against which we have no defense—happiness!"