I love this class

Animal Class, 9:01am today...

~30 people. 2 males, including me.

How many of you are members of a [animal] welfare organization?
0 hands
How many of you are vegetarians?
1 hand
How many of you attend religious services regularly?
3 hands (including the vegetarian)
Oh...ok. I guess nobody is in PETA.

Later in class...

"Let's talk about religion. In this country, most people are Christian, which is monotheistic. So in this country, we tend to worship heroes, but we also don't like it when people or things who are considered defenseless have something harm them. The most heinous crime in this country is child molestation. I submit to you that in many people's minds, animals are a close second. But most religions think animals have intrinsic value. That means that animals have values because they exist."

"Let's talk about philosophers. Rene Descartes weighed in on a lot of things. He was one of the founders of geometry and he also had an opinion on animals."

"Some animals don't really have self consciousness. They will make threatening faces at themselves in the mirror. Either they don't understand themselves or they don't understand the mirror."

We also were treated to the definitions of distress and anxiety/fear. I didn't type them cause I realized too late and the slide was changed.