He believes that parents for up to a year after birth should have a right to put their baby to death just as in ancient Greece or Rome parents could leave a deformed baby out in the wilderness to be devoured by wolves. Two such unwanted babes adopted and nursed at her nipples by a she-wolf were Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the City of Rome. In recent days Peter Singer has advanced a new cause bestiality. They are animals, notes Singer, but so are we. During the decadent decline of the Roman Empire, some dogs were unnaturally trained by humans to service amorous aristocratic women, in what seemed to be a reversal of the canine maternal affection of the she-wolf for Romulus and Remus.
Animals have feelings and their own kinds of intelligence, the animal activist argument goes.
And yet, as America s high schools expel kids for drawing a paper gun, the University of Oregon Eugene allows ALF to maintain a campus office and to actively recruit students. Yes, humans raise animals to devour them or exploit their muscles, egg-laying, fleece, and other attributes. These domesticated animals serve us, but we also protect and propagate them. And in this co-evolution we have reshaped each other. We have begun to renegotiate our inter-species contract to reduce cruelty to animals and to recognize that many other species possess not only feelings such as pain, fear, and affection but also traits of intelligence such as language, use of tools, and group relations resembling society and governance.