"Often, discussions surrounding animal experiments or meat eating resort to lifeboat scenarios. In such scenarios, people are asked to weigh the lives of a human vs an other-than-human animal. In the lifeboat case, it is then assumed that, of course, if there is only a place for three in a lifeboat, and there are three humans and a dog, the dog will have to go. However, such oversimplified scenarios fail to encompass the complexities of real ethical considerations. Indeed, because many intuit that the dog would have to go, it is automatically extrapolated that it is acceptable to eat meat or to engage in animal experimentation. However, we tend to forget that the lifeboat is an exceptional situation, one that is probably never going to happen. In fact, it has nothing to do with the complexities of the real-life ethics of animal experimentation or meat eating. Before we delve into ethical questions regarding animals , more specifically animal experimentation, it is interesting to look at how views on human relations with other- than-human animals have evolved historically. What follows focuses on Western philosophy. However, we must not forget that much can be gained through engaging"