Animal rights advocates believe that all sentient life is equally valuable, equally deserving of protection, equally important, equally cherished by those who possess it and those who wish to live. The contrast between that view and most of humanity is so stark as to trigger the question among animal advocates as to whether humans themselves are of any value.

Human civilization, from the aboriginal tribes of pre-history, to the industrialized capitalist model of today, has been dismissive of, and contemptuous toward, the rights of non-human animals. For most of human history, many humans have not been accorded even the most basic of human rights. The standard has been whether the oppression could prevail through force, violence and intimidation, or whether the oppressed could marshal significant resistance to force society to recognize their complaints and to then address them.

For millennia, humans have enslaved their fellow humans.

Some suggest our…