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.

We have to create more and more vegetarians, and help people to understand that it is not only the suffering of the animals (which is what made me vegetarian) but also the incredible harm to the environment, the tremendous amount of greenhouse gas created by the whole vast machinery of intensive animal farming.

If everybody on the planet today had the same standard of living as the average European or American, we would need three new planets. But we don't even have one new planet. We have this one, and with the way we're polluting it, the shrinking water resources, the climate change, the experimentation with plants... the outlook is grim.

Anyone who tries to improve the lives of animals invariably comes in for criticism from those who believe such efforts are misplaced in a world of suffering humanity.

My favorite animals are dogs.

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

Of course animals have a personality and emotions.