(via sky426)

everybodylikeskitridge:

not-my-three-patch-problem:

Richard & Izzy Hammond

(via theanimalblog)

charmingortedious:

Themba, the baby elephant, lost his mother after she fell down a cliff. The team at the Shamwari Rehabilitation Centre rescued him and for two years they dedicated their lives to getting this very special orphan back to the wild.

Themba soon befriended a very patient sheep named Albert, and together they formed a bond as strong as any human friendship. Albert never left Themba’s side and would follow Themba and his carers on long walks; share in Themba’s favourite snack of acacia pods; and when Themba took a dust bath, so did Albert. If any of the other animals at the Rehabilitation Centre tried to join in their fun and games, super protective Albert would make it quite clear that they were most unwelcome. The unlikely pair also made friends with a baby giraffe, and enemies with a baby hippo.

Sterner here. I don’t usually blog sappy shit like this (despite LOVING IT), but these examples really highlight how animals and humans are paralleled. People always wave off the question of whether animals have souls (because that question would make those who kill animals murderers, and that’s a pretty shocking sentiment), but how would you classify animal behavior, then? Completely routine and soulless? Routine but with some emotion, but still soulless? Do animals have a sort of consciousness the way humans do? Are animals truly “below” us on the evolutionary scale, or are they perhaps at another, almost unrelated level (like dolphins)? If so, who says that ‘other’ level isn’t HIGHER than the level at which we humans reside?