New research is confirming what interested parties have suspected for a long time - dogs are as intelligent as infant humans.
I am pretty dispassionate about which species is involved when it comes to ending life – the main factor is the intelligence and self-awareness of the victim. There are plenty of animals that are demonstrably self-aware, so in my view, it’s ethically worse to kill, say, an adult dog, than to perform an abortion. Or a dolphin, for that matter – or a pig, or an ape, or any other animal with clear signs of intelligence.
Glad to see more expert support that we should be taking the rights of animals more seriously. We are animals, after all, no matter what superstitionists insist, and by killing any other animal, we’re killing our own. Better have good reason.