The way people relate to non-human animals is deeply rooted in need, culture and upbringing, and this has extensive historical precedence. For most of our species’ time on earth, our relationship with animals was likely to have been very different from the current situation; it was almost certainly a more threatened and utilitarian one. More recently, our ability to control the immediate environment meant that animals no longer posed the constant threat they once certainly would have, and this was significantly consolidated once we learned to harness animals for our own purposes through domestication.

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