| Summary: | The article focuses on the relationship between humans and other animals. While oppression and cruelty towards others may always have existed, the number of animals who have their lives ended or made miserable by human activity is now entirely unprecedented. But there is an equally pressing ecological reason why it is important to listen to other animals. In the optimal environment for animals--the natural environment to which they are adapted by their evolution--animals play an integrated role in maintaining balanced ecosystems. Compare this to the unnatural environments of intensive farms, where animals are deliberately prevented from living according to their nature. These farms suck in (and waste) huge amounts of grain and other foodstuffs, and disgorge environmentally damaging waste. Relationships among humans are partially constructed through language; for example, the existence and use of insulting and offensive epithets does not merely reflect relationships of hate, the words themselves are the building blocks of such relationships. The studies reveal how, discourses, metaphors, grammatical constructions, pronouns and other linguistic features portray nonhuman animals as objects, machines, or inferior beings, and so contribute to the moral licensing of otherwise unconscionable levels of cruelty to nonhuman animals.
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