If intelligence gives us the right to kill and eat animals, and treat them as property, why is it forbidden to harm the mentally disabled? Mentally disabled people have less cognitive ability and are much lower in intelligence than animals, yet we treat them with compassion and animals with cruelty and indifference.
Why?
Intelligence, or lack thereof, is not a moral justification to harm animals. If an individual is capable of being harmed, then he should not be harmed. If animals want to live, who are we to say otherwise? Who made humanity judge, jury, and executioner of the animals? Who the fuck do we think we are?
"The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" - Jeremy Bentham