Animals were my passion from even before I could speak apparently. When I was about 10, 11 I fell in love with Tarzan.

There are many people out there (me being one of them) who can vouch that animals have feelings; they feel compassion and love, as well as pain!

One thing I had learned from watching chimpanzees with their infants is that having a child should be fun.

Farm animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear, and pain. They are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined...they are individuals in their own right.

Especially now when views are becoming more polarized, we must work to understand each other across political, religious and national boundaries.

We, as humans, have actually developed a sense of social responsibility. We have gone beyond our basic instincts. We can and we do. This is what sets us apart from the chimps. They are extremely brutal and hostile. Your next door neighbor is to be killed unless she is a juicy young female, who hasn't yet had her first baby, in which case you want her.

It made me feel particularly sickened to know that this kind of callous attitude toward animals is repeated again and again in laboratories around this country.