Some good food for thought there. But I think we need to go on what we know so far, i.e. look at evidence from the scientific community and use our own observa

Some good food for thought there. But I think we need to go on what we know so far, i.e. look at evidence from the scientific community and use our own observations. You probably thought I put too much emphasis on 'experience pain like we do'. What I meant was that - I'm borrowing words from C. Sagan - "They (animals) are too much like us". I didn't mean that they exactly experience pain like we do - maybe they do, maybe they don't. But I'm certain animals trapped in the large scale meat industry do suffer. There have been numerous studies that show that animals feel pain, they think & feel. And then there are our own observations - if you were growing up with pets - you'll know that animals have their own personality and do whimper and scream out when they are hurt and they do avoid any sources of pain if they can. Same for farm animals. I think your questions already contains an answer. The line you're talking about or the circle of protection is growing. There was a time were we exploited and caused enormous suffering towards other human beings on a large scale. We don't do that anymore and have laws that protect against that. We also think that cruetly towards animals is bad and have laws against that. Just those laws don't extend torwards farm animals - I'm sure that time will also come - more and more people are waking up and agree that the way we treat farm animals is just perverted and sick (see Earthlings https://vimeo.com/209647801 https://vimeo.com/209647801). And if we find evidence in the future that there are other ways to be sentient like you hinted at, we will also expand our circle of protection (compassion) to those life-forms. Edit: typos