I found this quote from a English philosopher of 1748 and I think we should take a minute to reflect about it.
“The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire
those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the
hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness
of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without
redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be
recognized that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the
termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient
for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that
should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or
perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is
beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal,
than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they
were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?”
―
Jeremy Bentham,
The Principles of Morals and Legislation
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