Any who carefully look can see that it is our anthropocentric tendency that allows us to regard humans as fully "superior" to other lifeforms on Earth, especially despite the fact that it is only we who are now threatening all living beings on our planet in addition to the many whole species our activities are already wiping out each day.
If we do want to see ourselves as positively different, then we might look toward our humanity - our capacity for genuinely humane behavior - to distinguish us from the rest of our animal sisters and brothers, whether or not that behavior is actually exclusive to human consciousness.
If we feel that our humanity is what makes us better, then along with this capacity, we are responsible for actualizing humane behavior, having the opportunity to express our humanity as compassion toward other living beings.
Whether or not a lioness may feel compassion, she must - in following the laws of her own body and ecosystem - kill and eat other living beings.
But, we do not. We might also distinguish ourselves in our ability to give birth to technologies and means by which we no longer need to kill animals to live healthy lives.
Modern, affluent humans have not only the technology to provide for bodily sustenance with an increasingly vast array of food choices, we also have the responsibility to make ethical decisions about what we eat, based upon our humane compassion.
If we wish to shore up our sense of place and purpose on Earth by placing ourselves at the top of some hierarchy of lifeforms, then might we do better by demonstrating that superiority, acting from that position, by behaving more ethically and refraining from any unnecessary enslavement and death of animals to satisfy our baser desires?
The actuality of our own humanity may depend upon it.
May all beings be happy and well.
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Thank you for caring for animals!