Well, THAT all goes back to the dogma that H. sapiens is somehow special in some magical way that makes it "different" from every other species on the planet (yet all species are "different" from one another, it's the bad, wonky definitions of species and race that people tend to work under that's fucked - race is a subset of species and refers to unique populations distinguishable visually and behaviourally from other populations that group can make viable and fully fertile babies with.) The whole "humans aren't animals, they're separate somehow in some undefinable magical sense" bullshit.

Which basically boils the problem down to the human mind wanting to totem-pole every goddamn thing.

Well, THAT all goes back to the dogma that H. sapiens is somehow special in some magical way that makes it "different" from every other species on the planet (yet all species are "different" from one another, it's the bad, wonky definitions of species and race that people tend to work under that's fucked - race is a subset of species and refers to unique populations distinguishable visually and behaviourally from other populations that group can make viable and fully fertile babies with.) The whole "humans aren't animals, they're separate somehow in some undefinable magical sense" bullshit.