And God made the beast on the earth after his kind,
and the cattle after their kind,
and every thing that creepeth upon the
earth after his kind:
and God saw it was good.

Genesis

I think I could turn and live with
     animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God
     with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to the other, nor to his kind that
     live thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth

So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them
     plainly in their possession.

Walt Whitman
Song of Myself