Animals are conscious and should be treated as such

[Minyatur]

I would perhaps note for myself that I don't really have any actual 'beliefs'. All of this is, from my perspective, an on-going exercise in the balancing of polarized opposites in the mind. When there is something before me, I shape to it as its opposite. Then, being its opposite, I invert and become that thing which is then balanced with its opposite in my awareness and I realize both as possibilities of thought and experience. They then 'go quiet'.

That is the path of a mediator, when discussing with others I always take the less-liked side to balance perspectives.