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You know what the problem that animal activists sometimes have? They only concentrate on the heartbreaking things to the point where the general public thinks, 'Oh, here comes those animal folks again and I'm going to hear all the things I don't want to hear.'

I feel that we have a responsibility to try to do everything we can to protect species, and the best way to do that is to uphold international conservation law.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

It's a moral question about whether we have the right to exterminate species.

And if that's what the American people want, then that's what the policy should be, of course. But the idea that anything in the United States is too sensitive to discuss or too dangerous to discuss is really, I think, absurd.

Politicians need a better understanding of global ecology. We need to be freed from our species-specific arrogance. No evidence exists that we are 'chosen', the unique species for which all the others were made. Nor are we the most important one because we are so numerous, powerful and dangerous.

I'd say that animal rights and environmental issues have always been at the forefront of my mind.

We need to be discussing issues specifically to help the American people. And that would not include illegal aliens.

The more you know about a species, the more you understand about how better to help protect them.