Of all the objections to veganism, I think that one of the most confused ones of all is the claim that vegans \u201canthropomorphize\u201d animals. Interestingly, this point is misunderstood not only by non-vegans, but by secular vegans as well, and I\u2019ll explain why. But first, let\u2019s define anthropomorphize.<\/p>\n
According to the dictionary:<\/p>\n
Basically, anthropomorphize is just a fancy word for humanize.<\/p>\n
So what exactly do the naysayers mean by humanize or \u201canthropomorphize\u201d? I\u2019m assuming that what they\u2019re saying is that vegans ascribe qualities like intelligence, emotions and personalities to animals, in order to justify our position that people shouldn\u2019t eat or exploit animals.<\/p>\n
There are two points I want to make about this claim.<\/p>\n
The first point is that we don\u2019t have to falsely ascribe emotions or intelligence to animals, because it is an observable fact<\/strong> that many animals indeed do<\/em> have emotions, intelligence, and sentience. Anyone who has owned a dog or cat knows this. Perhaps average people aren\u2019t aware that farm animals are also sentient, intelligent and have their own individual personalities, like our cats and dogs. In fact, pigs are ranked as even smarter than dogs<\/a>, and tests have shown that they outsmart even human toddlers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here are some examples that farm animals are more intelligent than most people realize:<\/p>\n