Animals deserve the right of equal consideration. There are two sets of characteristics that represent how beings are treated differently; the first way is by rationality, having the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and the second way is the ability to feel pain and pleasure. As Peter Singer says in his article, “the basic principle of equality, I shall argue, is equality of consideration; and equal consideration for different beings may lead to different treatment and different rights.” The important characteristic that Singer points out is the ability to feel suffering, which gives beings the right to equal consideration. What gives beings the capacity to experience pain and pleasure is the idea of sentience. So in the case that animals do feel emotions like pleasure and plain, we must give them equal consideration of our interest. To help understand Peter Singer one must be familiar with the ideas of utilitarianism. There are two moral principles when talking about utilitarianism; the first principle is equality, in which everyone is treated with the same rights, and the second principle is the best balance of satisfaction over frustration. As discussed in class, human beings have the tendency to favor the interest of human beings themselves over non-human beings. Along the same lines, human beings also have the tendency to favor the interest of higher animals over the interest of lower animals. In Singer’s eyes, since animals have the capacity of suffering, we as human beings must give animals moral equality. In other words, even though we are more intelligent than non-human beings they still have the capacity of suffering, which leads to human beings of an obligation to not cause needless suffering to non- human beings.