That is anthropizing animals.
Alright I'm getting back to this point like I said I would, because I wanted to post a few parts of a blog post I wrote a few years ago on ^ this very claim. Here it is:
Basically, anthropomorphize is just a fancy word for humanize.
So what exactly do the naysayers mean by humanize or “anthropomorphize”? I’m assuming that what they’re saying is that vegans ascribe qualities like intelligence, emotions and personalities to animals, in order to justify our position that people shouldn’t eat or exploit animals.
There are two points I want to make about this claim.
The first point is that we don’t have to falsely ascribe emotions or intelligence to animals, because it is an observable fact that many animals indeed do have emotions, intelligence, and sentience. Anyone who has owned a dog or cat knows this. Perhaps average people aren’t 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, and tests have shown that they outsmart even human toddlers.
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The second point gets back to my original comment that this claim shows a big misunderstanding. Here’s why.
By assuming that attributes like intelligence, emotions and personalities are inherently human, the non-vegan who is making this claim is showing an anthropocentric worldview. In other words, he is making human beings central in this universe. Human beings are not central.
Here’s the reality. Qualities like intelligence, emotions and personalities are not “human” qualities, they are qualities that humans possess, but not only humans.
These qualities come from God. GOD is the one who gave us intelligence, emotions and personalities, but God also gave those qualities to many animals as well. So they are not human qualities, they are qualities that are rooted in God’s nature, and He chose to give not only humans but also animals a certain amount of intelligence, personalities and emotions.
The full post is
here.
And man oh man, I spent a little too much time here today.
I have some things I gotta do, but I'll be back later if anyone responds to what I just said about the false claim of anthropomorphizing.
so you can continue to act as if animals are mere objects that you can exploit and use, not caring about the visible fact that they can feel pain and suffer.
