Rethinking our relationship with animals, and the ways this is possible and allowed (to treat them) as well, morally speaking, is an issue which concerns us more and more. The way we understand animals exerts a direct influence on the way in which we refer to them and use them too. For this reason, this grows into a high-stake issue. We are afraid of the things we should renounce, provided that we choose to reassess the place occupied by the non-human beings in the known accepted order of this world. The old paradigm where they were “simply animals” is at risk of falling apart when faced with the new questions raised by the human dominance upon nature and which are the real differences and under which context they should be considered. 

Despite our efforts of defining the specific nature of human being, the “animal” term comprises humans as well. Thus, the animals which are different from us are known as non-human animals. Therefore, if we try thinking beyond the human-animal dichotomy, we understand that all attempts of classifying living beings are liable to subjectivity.  Not only we should not overlook the fact that the division into genres, species, breeds, or types is meant to play the role of an instrument for a better comprehension of nature, but also it is the very one which establishes the ways of assessment and ranking.