@Salk, the matter of animal rights (and responsibilities) and our ethical treatment of animals may be distinct.

On the intelligence or self awareness measures... there's a cute video of a cat noticing its own ears in a mirror and testing that identification by kicking its ear as it watches the image. So it can test its kinesthetic (action) and sensation (feeling the ear with both ear and foot) against its visual. The item folks would want to avoid testing is whether an animal would use its reflection as part of a process to get something it wanted. If it has a dot on its forehead there will be food behind the first door. wait and see on that one folks.

All life is sacred. Have you ever watched Seven Years in Tibet?? True story about two guys that get trapped on the Tibetan mountain during the world war, and they end up making friends with the Dali Lama who wanted them to build a movie theater in the village for his people ... which they do.

And the villagers got all upset because they were killing worms in the construction process. On the top of a mountain like that, you realize how sacred life is - if you see a flower bloom, you don't step on it because you are aware that you may never see another one bloom there again. They began sifting the dirt to ensure no worms were injured while digging the posts for the movie theater.

What exactly do you want to kill and why?? A fish has the right to swim in the river, a bird has a right to fly in the sky, a tree has the right to grow it's branches. We are not here to kill the Earth, we are here to take care of it. Everything has a reason to be here, even if we don't know or understand what it's reason is.

-JoeJoe

Do you kill and eat insects JoeJoe?

Do I kill and eat insects?? No ... as I already explained, I eat them while they are still alive. When the lion eats it's prey, it is still breathing.

-JoeJoe

Sorry lions kill and eat prey. OOPS.

So do you. So in other words JoeJoe not ALL life is sacred huh?

I don't want to yell GOTCHA or accuse you of hypocrisy. We all make varying moral decisions about our diets and impact. Even Texans don't eat dog or horse.
But I don't understand the claim of rights to life and liberty for creatures and plants in a life-cycle based on consumption. Sometimes consumption IS the reason.