as a occultist and animist i really hate how people view animals as stupid and undeserving of personhood. i understand that from a zoologist perception that anthropomorphizing animals is not ideal for spreading accurate characterization and behaviour.
however from the animist and spiritual perspective all animals DO have souls and personhood and have their own morality and social rules they follow that are closer to the cosmic and natural morality of the universe as opposed to the dogma of modern religion that implies typically that humans are the only beings capable of morality due to being the one ones possessing souls.
all beings have souls and values and deserve peesonhood. animals behave differently because they are not bothered by the modern dogma that controls society and we should strive to be closer to them and realize that they are highly intelligent, spiritually aware, possessing of individual personalities and worthy of the respect we should give unto others based on what we wish to be done to us.
society crumbles but nature does not. the modern dogmas will one day be ancient and nearly forgotten history but rabbits will still eat plants and coyotes will still eat rabbits and we will use the coyotes fur to keep ourselves warm and their bodies will feed the plants that feed the rabbit.
this is not to say humans should not eat animals either, animals and plants are meant to be eaten with the utmost respect for their personhood, role in the food chain, and should be revered as a valuable life and thanked for sustaining your own. plants deserve this same respect.
and i guess what i mean to say is just because humans are an outlier in the food chain does not mean they actually are smarter or better and certainly not the only beings with souls. they are different and if anything they are lesser because they do not understand their purpose on a masse scale and often fail their personal tests. animals already have it figured out and know their place and pass their tests. humans fall to their hubris anytime they assume an animal does not have equal personhood.
