> > > What about plants? Don't they get rights?
> >
> > No. Plants are not sentient, and therefore don't get rights. Same for insects.
> >
> > Wormwood
>
> As far as I understand the word, humans are the only animals we know of that sentient. Am I misinterpreting something here?

Well... Sentience, or self-awareness, can be found in creatures other than humans on earth. We look to experiments with the higher primates, like bonobos, chimpanzees, and some gorillas. For example, take some blue paint -- or another brightly fluorescent color -- and dab the animal's forehead with paint without their knowledge. Then give a mirror to the creature and see what happens. These primates stare into the mirror, looking at the paint splotch on themselves, and touch the paint or even rake fingers through their hair to remove the splotch. If an animal has an internalized self-conception of what it is *supposed* to look like, and knows that the image in the mirror represents its "self", and moreover could recognize that the paint spot was *not* supposed to be there: then its actions pretty well demonstrate the presence of self-awareness. Q.E.D.

Wolf "but mastering grammar is another trait altogether :-)" spirit