Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habit, they would give more heed to their conduct while still in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. There seems to be no shirking the conclusion, based on concrete evidence provided by bone-bearing sediment, and artifacts, that our primeval ancestors exploited animals. Poet John Dryden s trenchant insight provides a thought-provoking concept about the unlimited influence of habit. We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.
All habits gather by unseen degrees, as brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
Thus another book evolves, purporting to present justification for the emancipation of animals form human tyranny. The test by which such a claim must be judged must be coldly rational and objective. At issue in the dispute between biocentric animal advocates and their anthropocentric opposition, is whether or not the animal kingdom should continue to be subjected to human exploitation which, inevitably entails human tyranny. Anti-animal partisans maintain that animals are, in terms of human interest, expendable items. Progress in human, and veterinary medicine depends to a great degree on unfettered experiments on animals.