uding computer modeling and human testing.
Me: What are the connections for you between Ecofeminism and animal rights?
Ms. W.: They are integral. Ecofeminism is the recognition that the earth has been treated like women have been treated. The basic assumption is that both are there to be dominated, conquered, and exploited, used, rather than worked with in partnership. The same thing applies to animals. They have been seen as inferior beings, like women, who can be used for their benefit to human beings. if they are not of immediate benefit, then they can simply be destroyed.
Me: What about the issue of sentience?
Ms. W: There are so many false issues involved. Are animals sentient? Do they have feelings? Do they have feelings like people have feelings? Do they have souls? Did God make them for us to use them? Were they created inferior in the hierarchy of being? Those are loaded, but unanswerable questions, since they have been biased toward the human perspective. Human beings define sentience or feelings or souls or god, and then apply their own thinking toward other elements of the earth. Again, there is a connection here between animal rights and feminism. For many years, men defined what it meant to be a human being, then applied their definition to women, or to other racial groups, and decided that those groups were inferior, not quite full human beings. Unfortunately, animals cannot tell their own stories like human beings can, so they have an even more difficult time in gaining support and adherents.
Me: don't you think that most animal rights activists have an overly sentimental view of animals? They are not like Walt Disney creatures.
Ms. W: No. I think it is more likely that non-animal rights activists have that sentimental viewpoint. We know that animals are not cuddly little
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