Our Strange Relationship with Animals

I thought this was an interesting piece contrasting three different people and their relationships with animals. One is a meat-eating professor of animal welfare, another is an animal rights activist, and the third is an animal researcher.

This quote from the animal rights person is spot-on for me.

....[Maria's] strong opinions have made her somewhat of an outcast, even among old friends:

"Some of them think that I'm totally insane, and then there is people at work, some of them understand to a degree, but some of them think that I'm the craziest thing they ever met."

The article continues...

It's easy to look at somebody protesting outside a lab and think they are nuts, says Villanova ethicist Brett Wilmot:

Wilmot: We become very complacent when we're in an environment that for the most part reflects our sense of order, and justice and reasonableness, and then when other people are in that same environment and find it appalling and react that way, our first reaction is to think "wow - what on earth is wrong with them" when again, they may be simply exhibiting the same kind of reaction we would under different circumstances.