Yesterday, in The Predator Problem Revisited, I argued that
animal rights concerns does not necessarily imply vegetarianism
or the view that it is wrong to kill animals. However, as Chris
pointed out in a comment to that posting, animal rights concern
is broader than this. Therefore, let me take a few moments to
state some broad morally relevant facts about animals. First,
animals operate on a system of beliefs and desires. The best way
to explain a wide range of animal behavior is in terms of
statements about what the animal wants (sex, food, avoidance of
pain, comfort) and what the animal believes to be true about the
world. Somebody who owns a pet makes perfectly good sense when
he says that the pet wants to go outside, or that the pet
"thinks that I still have his toy." Desires are reasons for
action. This is no less true in non-human animals as it is in
humans. Animals' desires are reasons-for-action for realizing a
state in which humans have particular desires and aversion. That
is to say, animals have