Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life.

I'm always pushing for human responsibility. Given that chimpanzees and many other animals are sentient and sapient, then we should treat them with respect.

We do not think clearly about our moral obligations to animals.

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.

Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of a whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the form of life of which animals are capable clearly impose duties of compassion and humanity in their case.

We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.

Animals are sentient, intelligent, perceptive, funny and entertaining. We owe them a duty of care as we do to children.

The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men.

If apes are given the right to humane treatment, it just might become harder to deny that same right to their human cousins.

How we take care of our animals is a very good indicator of how we are doing as a society. It is symbolic of how, as human beings, we go about treating each other.

Animals are not our playthings. We are on this earth to protect them. It's our duty.

I really believe that we have a responsibility, almost a sacred responsibility, to the animals that share this planet with us.

If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them," said Pooh.

I've always loved animals and I always thought that they were, if not better, then the absolute equal of any two legged creature that God ever created.

I just want to reflect the respect I have for animals.

PETA's campaign should be included in school curricula. If we can open children's hearts and minds to animals' needs, teach them to treat a dog or a chicken as if they feel fear and love and pain - as they do - then they will grow up to understand that we are all worthy of respect.

Animal welfare issues have always been important to me.

Humanity evolves when we realise that animals have the same rights to the Earth as we do.

When you meet chimps you meet individual personalities. When a baby chimp looks at you it's just like a human baby. We have a responsibility to them.

My mother early on taught us to respect all animals, and I mean all animals - not just cats and dogs but rats and snakes and spiders and fish and wildlife, so I really grew up believing they are just like us and just as deserving of consideration.

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.

We recognize the chicken as another conscious being. It's different from us, but it has a life, and if something is really important for that chicken, if it would work hard to try to get it, and if we can give it without sacrificing something that's really important to us, then we should.

Our laws are a reflection of our culture. Our culture does not condone the torture of innocent and defenseless creatures. And we as a society believe all God's creatures should be treated humanely.

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.

I'm an animal lover.