Animal Autonomy Quotes

Man is the only slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day, he is always some man's slave for wages, and does that man's work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.

Cats are like donkeys and camels, they won't ever quite give in to human tyranny, they won't try to imitate the human soul.

The cat: an animal that's so unpredictable, you can never tell in advance how it will ignore you the next time.

[I believe] that animals have a worth in and of themselves, and that they are not inferior to human beings but rather just different from us, and that they really don't exist for us nor do they belong to us...it should not be a question of how they should be treated within the context of their usefulness, or perceived usefulness, to us, but rather whether we have a right to use them at all.

That parrot's non-co-operation with the cage, with its master, will live for ever because it looks upon renunciation, non-co-operation, as a joy.

Animals were not made for us, or our use. They have their own use, which is just being who they are.

Our success was mainly due to the fact that we stimulated the nerves of animals that easily stood on their own feet and were not subjected to any painful stimulus either during or immediately before stimulation of their nerves.

Octopuses have hundreds of suckers, each one equipped with its own ganglion with thousands of neurons. These 'mini-brains' are interconnected, making for a widely distributed nervous system. That is why a severed octopus arm may crawl on its own and even pick up food.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

There is no evidence that an animal can take on the sophisticated task of deciding to end his life and to communicate that decision to us.

If a horse doesn't want to do something, you're not going to make him do it. They're incredibly powerful animals.

The human beings did not hate Animal Farm any less now that it was prospering; indeed, they hated it more than ever.

I hate a word like 'pets': it sounds so much Like something with no living of its own.

Horses are wild animals, essentially, and they're not there to do what humans want them to - they can be browbeaten or cajoled or trained, but they don't hear English; they're not obedient most of the time.

The animal should not be measured by man. In a world older than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the sense we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.

Animals are in possession of themselves; their soul is in possession of their body. But they have no right to their life, because they do not will it.

Harness mules and oxen, but give a horse a chance to run.