About eight years ago I realized that to say that "my" form of animal use (owning pets) should be permitted, but "your" form of animal use (everything else) ought to be stopped, was so illogical and self-serving that it ought to embarrass me (and it did, once I looked hard at myself).

But every time I said this publicly I was asked in horrified tones, "So what would you do, set them all loose in the woods to fend for themselves?"

Since I had never suggested anything so horribly inhumane; and could not bring myself to do anything so horribly inhumane; and I had said that we had to phase out animal use by stopping the breeding of animals in order to serve any human purpose, I was always nonplussed by the question. Nevertheless, I continued to answer it over and over. Here again is my answer...

I have never said that I am in favour of setting all animals loose in the woods (or anywhere).

No abolitionist that I have ever read or heard of has ever suggested that all animals be set loose in the woods (or anywhere).

I have said that we must stop breeding animals for any human purpose, including all the "nice" purposes such as companionship.

I have said that it is "nice" animal users who validate all the uses of animals, including all the bad uses.

I have said that it impossible to draw a line between good and bad uses of animals. What is one person's humane treatment is another's cruelty. (Think "good" zoos; think a dog kept in the basement but walked once a day.) Any use permits all use.

As someone said in a previous post, I can't have my cake and eat it too. That is exactly what I acknowledge I can't have.

For their sakes, for our sakes, for God's sake, just let them be; leave them alone in their natural spheres; let them live as nature created them, not as what we have twisted them into -- creatures who cannot live without us. The hubris of remaking them into what serves us best is the same hubris that is destroying the other works of Nature. We will all pay the ultimate price unless we acknowledge our many acts of hubris, not least of which is assuming we have a right to own other sentient beings as long as we do it "nicely".