However, we consider animals to be inferior and use their names as derogatory terms. We call a coward a chicken, a woman a bitch, etc. Ironic thing is that the animals themselves rarely inhibit the pejoratives assigned to them: "Wolves do not philander like the human "wolf." Most are steadfastly monogamous" (Anthology 391). Similarly, chickens are not "chickens" and female dogs are not "bitches."
Chickens are not really cowards
Such speciesism arises from the misconception that humans are superior to the animals. However, "Human superiority is as much a lie as male superiority" (Anthology 394). The animals are superior to humans in so many different aspects. Cheetahs are faster than us, gorillas are stronger than us, etc. Just about every non human animals have a wisdom and vision that are unfamiliar and possibly superior to humans.
Cheetahs are swifter than humans.
Some people like to argue that humans are more compassionate than non human animals, but the Yale Millgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment clearly show that statement is also untrue. Those two experiments show that humans are sadistic animals underneath the pretense, and if given the opportunity, humans will utilize the opportunity to make others suffer. In the Stanford prison experiment, volunteers were assigned roles as prisoners and guards. In just few days things got out of hand: "Experimenters said that approximately one-third of the guards exhibited genuine sadistic tendencies" (Sadism). The experiment was quickly terminated, but many prisoners were traumatized by the event. In the Yale Millgram experiment an actor was a "student," and participant was a "teacher." "Student" supposedly had a heart condition, but the "teacher" had to punish the student with increasing electric shock for every wrong answer. The scary thing is that most of the teachers never stopped inflicting pain on the student until the student stopped responding: "In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (26 of 40) of experiment participants administered the experiment's final massive 450-volt shock, . . . Only one participant steadfastly refused to administer shocks below the 300-volt level" (Sadism). Contrastingly, researchers conducted a similar study with monkeys. The researchers gave one monkey an option to eat food as an exchange of shocking another monkey. Once the monkey found out that his actions were hurting another monkey, he immediately stopped and refused to eat for days. These researches show that humans are innately sadistic compared to other animals, such as monkeys.
These participants had no reason to be abused like this.
"The animal is a word, it is an appellation that men have instituted, a name they have given themselves the right and the authority to give to another living creature" (Anthology 403). Perhaps, it is because we coined the term animal that we believe we are superior; however, we forget that "humans are found giving [the term animal] to themselves, this word, but as if they had received it as an inheritance" (Anthology 407). As we are part of animals, we must respect other creatures in the same category as us.
