Animals have the ability to feel pain and suffering, just as humans do, and they have similar emotional reactions to such suffering. Because this is true, moral people through-out the ages have understood that just as we have a responsibility towards other humans to treat them with compassion and respect (and at the very least to avoid inflicting unnecessary pain), we have the same sort of responsibility to animals. Just as each person has the responsibility to determine how they will live their lives so as to be most moral towards their fellow humans, each person must also determine how they can live so that they are moral towards their fellow animals. It can be harder to know how to live so as to be moral towards animals, because the cruelty towards them is so systemic. The main areas in which one must make decisions about personal morality are that regarding the eating of animals and using of their bodies for pleasure and profit, the use of animals for experimentation, and the appropriate way to live with animals who are our companions. In each of these areas, it is necessary to take into consideration the facts of the case in each area and balance the pain and suffering they entail with one's own self-interest.

When it comes to eating animals, some people might point out that animals eat each other, so one could argue that it is natural for different species to prey on one another and one can treat an animal morally even if one kills then for food, so long as one isn't cruel. This may be valid, especially for hunters (even though most prey animals don't kill other animals, and therefore are the "innocent" parties involved). However, most animals who are eaten today are not killed in a humane way. The movie "Meet your Meat," narrated by Alec Baldwin, describes the way in which animals are raised and butchered. They show cows still alive, strung up by their hind legs screaming as their throats were cut, or dunked in boiling water while still alive. In one clip, a half-slaughtered pig broke one of his own legs trying to get free, slipping and sliding on blood as he tried to escape the slaughter house. Chickens and pigs are kept in terrible conditions while alive. Chickens have their beaks cut off without anesthesia, and live in such little cages that they cannot turn around and usually go insane. Pigs have their ears, tails, and genitalia mutilated without pain medication, are kept in tiny unsanitary cages, and frequently freeze to the side of their trucks during transport. A close study of the 'factory farm' environment shows that no commercially available meat today is harvested with respect and high-quality care for the animals involved."[Animals] are never allowed to do anything that is natural to them -- they are never able to feel the grass beneath their feet, the sun on their faces, or fresh air.... all their energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They spend their lives confined to concrete stalls and metal cages, terrified and suffering in such unnatural conditions." (Meet your Meat) This film is widely available online at http://www.meetyourmeat.com.

Experimentation on animals is the most absurd case of animal abuse. Experimentation on animals is patently cruel, particularly when it involves larger animals such as monkeys, cats, and dogs. Animals may be burned, maimed, and tortured in many ways purely for the