Likewise it is admirable that there are people so motivated by a concern for the suffering of others that they have dedicated their lives to ministering to the ill or searching for a cure or prevention for one of the many health crises seemingly waiting around the next corner of our lives. What remains at issue, however, is the belief by some that doing much to alleviate suffering, or to broaden humankind's understanding of our own physiology, is simply not enough, and that they must pursue this quest by doing anything. There appears to be no limit to the harm that many are willing to inflict on animals in their quest to solve the riddles of life and death. In order to be able to defend the practices that cause such wide-scale suffering to animals in laboratories it is necessary to elucidate the precise characteristics or sensitivities that humans have but that other animals lack. I imagine that, to Smitty, it is not.
Cats have better balance than humans and are obviously much more agile.
Balance and agility are deemed valuable and important human characteristics and we idolize those who excel in these abilities during the Olympics and pay athletes millions of dollars to run and jump to entertain us. I was once the Special Education Director at a small rural K-12 public school in eastern Oregon. In that role I helped children and teens with developmental problems learn various skills. Some of the students I taught were not able to learn to read. She is loving, demanding, prefers some music over others, is capable of misery and contentment.