Well it's good to be honest, and so I commend you on that.

So the hierarchy is

- our kids

- "third-world orphans"

- other species

For what it's worth, I'm not denying the benefit we obtain by testing on animals, nor am I suggesting that we live surrounded by rodents that we know to be vectors for multiple diseases that would affect us.

The comment above was merely an observation on the value of life and how little attention we pay to it.

We subject sentient beings to untold amounts of horror every day, and we are completely destroying the balance of life on earth with a system that is entirely devoted to serving humans--individual humans, not humanity.

The statue is not the point. The point is what this little creature did and how we might learn to show mercy and respect to our fellow sentient beings.