Noting that a human birth typically provides greater opportunities
for spiritual practice than an animal birth, Kalu Rinpoche, a Tibetan high lama who played a major role in the 1960’s and 70’s in bringing the Dharma to the West, draws this distinction between the human and animal realms: “Women and men, children and adults, all share, to some extent, the opportunities and freedoms of our human condition. By contrast, animals and those in other states of existence lack these opportunities and freedoms. The distinction between human and beast — wild carnivores living in the jungle, deep sea creatures, or insect life — is made precisely on the basis of this opportunity to practice the Dharma.” In other words, we are not better than animals, we are just more fortunate in our present circumstances. And it is precisely because we are more fortunate that we owe them our compassion and our protection.
Norm Phelps
from The Great Compassion; Buddhism & Animal Rights