A Being Cannot Avoid Pain and Seek Pleasure, Flee Death and Cling to Life If She Does Not Have a Sense of Herself as a Discrete, Continuing Being

Anyone who has had extended contact with animals knows that they have a sense of a continuing self. Animals recognize loved ones whom they have not seen for years, they impatiently await the dinner hour, and dogs often stand watch at the door when it is time for their human companions to come home from work. Animals who have been beaten with a stick will cower and cringe whenever someone picks up a stick, clearly anticipating future pain on the basis of remembered experience. This would not be possible if they did not possess the sense of themselves as discrete, continuing individuals. A being cannot avoid pain and seek pleasure, flee death and cling to life if she does not have a sense of herself as a discrete, continuing being.

---The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights, by Norm Phelps---