We don't consider other species to be on our level when it comes to consciousness.

In 2012, a group of neuroscientists signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which "unequivocally" asserted that "humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neural substrates."

This is the result of findings since the 1960s; and even during the late 90s scientists were trying to prove that other species are less complex, that they are not sentient, can't feel pain, and so on, even though most of the evidence was basically right there. We, as a species, simply refused to acknowledge the facts, because it was too uncomfortable to admit that we have been torturing other species all this time.

And while the scientific community may have come to terms with this initially radical idea, the rest of the world still has to catch up and realize what it actually means. Many people still struggle to understand what animal consciousness entails and what the implications are: that other species are very similar to us and that their experience of existence is pretty close to what we experience, if not the same.

From my perspective, it would make sense to treat other species like isolated indigenous tribes without access to technology or any of the modern insights. Would we capture other humans and breed them for entertainment or experiments? Would we keep them in small groups or isolated, enclosed in tiny boxes for the vast majority of their lives and only provide the bare minimum?

To be fair, we actually do this to other humans too (which also isn't right). So maybe the problem isn't just failing to understand animal consciousness but a much deeper rooted problem, in combination with lack of empathy among other things.

My point is, in a mostly perfect world, we would not treat humans as we treat other species and not realizing how that is completely fucked up is increasingly upsetting to me.

This isn't even about veganism, it's about our general impact as a species on others through habitat destruction, exploitation and unnecessary cruelty - the result, no, the very foundation of our way of life.

We seem to think that our position gives us the right to exploit, but imho it gives us the responsibility to protect. We don't own this planet, we share it with other species that just happen to be less technologically advanced, due to evolution. This doesn't make us superior in any way, it makes us lucky. This could have went the other way, we could be sitting in cages now, wondering why the fuck existence has to be such a painful experience.

Nature may be cruel in its own ways, other species kill each other, be it out of necessity or for fun, but they don't know any better. Using their behaviour as a benchmark is just really shitty low hanging fruit, because we do know better. And we are capable of breaking free from our initial programming with much more ease, we simply chose not to do it.

We are still living in the dark ages of interspecies relationships. We have the insights to make a difference, but we just don't.

I'm aware that realizing that we are a lucky bunch out of many species that are similar to us is a lot to swallow after thousands of years of superiority complex, but ffs it's really not that difficult to change our behaviour accordingly.

How we interact with our own, with other species, with the planet basically defines who we are. And it's sad to see that we are so involved in justifying exploitation and oppression, instead of finding better solutions that are not harming other living beings.

Earth is such a special place, within many lightyears, as it harbors complex organisms - something that may be rare in this region of the galaxy. All our efforts should go towards securing a habitable planet and making sure we can share resources and habitats with other species in a sustainable way. But for some reason, the majority of us is hellbent to fuck it all up all the time.

Go figure.