The only thing that "bothers" me about this piece is its narrow approach to the actual situation. If it were to read "just an animal", I might be more empathetic. Granted, I have, up until this point in my life, never had a grizzlie bear on my bed or taken one for a walk but that does not abnegate the feelings of kinship I feel when I see one, even on the t.v. We run into very real philosophical and ethical difficulties when we treat one species of animal differently from another. Again, I recognize that dogs have been bred to fulfill varying functions in the life of humans, which in itself is a questionable enterprise, but that does not make them any more or less a part of this planet than any other species. One of the only differences here is that I have more of an opportunity to know a dog individually than I do a cow. This does not relegate my responsibility to recognize the intrinsic worth of all other species of animals to a lesser position. Consistency of moral and ethical responses rests entirely on the word 'responsibility'. Indeed, if humans would recognize and live their responsibility to all other species, we would not even find it necessary to propose the term 'animal rights'. All that is necessary is the recognition that sentience, other than human sentience, is of paramount issue. A great many humans do not even recognize the sentience of women or children or those of other colour or those of differing sexual persuasion. The responsibility of recognizing sentience in all living beings is, perhaps, the only task required of human beings. This responsibility is far more important than the dictates of any religion, belief system or moral stance. Indeed, if said responsibility were to be adopted by the majority of humans there would be no need for any of the 'rights movements'. Not only that, but compassion and wisdom would necessarily be correlative and flourish on this earth, our mutual home.

And by corollary, it is far past the time for legislating human rights, women's rights, gay rights, children's rights, minority rights, etc. etc, etc. The only term that subsumes all the rights movements is 'Animal Rights'.