"Then again, it is undoubtedly misleading to draw too sharp a divide between human self-interest and compassion for animals, in light not just of modern ecology but of Joseph Smith’s revelations on the materiality of spirit (D&C 131:7) and on the ways in which the fates of all living souls on earth are bound together, from creation to millennium to exaltation and beyond. Joseph Smith’s animal teachings, not excluding the killing of the squirrel, look remarkably consistent and even biocentric when compared with those of René Descartes, whose theories on the soullessness and a-rational status of animals (or 'beast-machines,' as he styled them) have authorized innumerable horrific acts of cruelty in the vivisection chamber and the animal testing lab, but who preferred keeping to a vegetarian diet for the sake of his own health."