The idea that animals should have the same rights as humans extends back to the 9th century BCE, along with the principle in Eastern religions of ahimsā, non-violence toward all living beings, advocating for kindness and non-cruelty expressed daily by a vegetarian diet. I guess they did not believe growing, breathing plants were living. An odd prejudice, one arising because humans are unable to hear plants screaming in agony when being cut, plucked, or extracted from nourishing soil. I wonder how much the trees wail when the fruit, a parallel with chicken eggs, they lovingly bear are removed from their mother plant, and the seeds are consumed...
