Well, you know I am not "woke", I have enjoyed many of your articles and I certainly do see your perspective to some degree. I don't consider animals to be equivalent to human beings. However...
What I found troublesome in your article - you casually mention animal research without talking about how cruel it is. Even with "humane" standards of treatment - there is no justification, IMHO, for locking an animal to live out its miserable life in a cramped steel cage while it is often tortured.
What makes it worse - thanks to modern advances, it is no longer necessary to use animal testing in many cases as there are other methods that actually give more accurate results; if you add to that the experiments done on animals that are simply replications of past research done for nebulous reasons, and you could get rid of 95% of animal testing. With the money saved, you could invest in better care for the 5% of animals that really are necessary in order to save human lives.
It is also troublesome to read someone defending ownership of exotic animals if you don't differentiate between people such as Joe Exotic vs. someone who decides to get a ferret. A raccoon or a skunk might be considered exotic pets but they can be reasonably cared for while tigers should NOT be kept in captivity.
Re. zoos - I am not anti-zoo, but, again, I'm glad that animal rights activists have raised awareness so that now instead of concrete and steel cages, animals have more room and more natural enclosures that allow some enrichment for them. This also creates a better environment for visitors to the zoo...
then of course there is the issue of factory farms... one reason I NEVER buy any meat that is not pastured is because of how cruel industrial animal operations are.
I don't have any problem with people keeping pets as long as they are well cared for, and I don't have a problem with eating meat or even with necessary animal research. But I am against torturing animals for no good reason. We need to respect animals as sentient creatures, just like we need to respect the earth as our home. When we do this, we are also showing respect for ourselves.
Advocating for the humane treatment of animals does not make someone a "nut" or unhinged. It signifies compassion. If some people carry this too far, that doesn't mean we condemn the majority, who are simply motivated by basic decency.
