I am being 100% serious. And your reference to looking both ways before crossing a road makes you smarter - ummmm, are you serious? This is your argument as to why you think you are smarter than the average bear? LOL. I don't think so. You were TAUGHT to stop and look both ways before crossing the road - you were not born with that knowledge. Animals are also TAUGHT by their parents, albeit different things than we humans are taught by our parents, but they are taught, nonetheless. We could no more exist as animals do than they could exist as we do. Does that make us more intelligent? I don't think so. There are many different forms of intelligence and just because you know to stop and look both ways before you cross a road does not make you more intelligent than animals.
So according to your statement above, it is okay for one person to kill another person because, according to you, they have a reason although it may not be the RIGHT reason? So this is okay? Again, are you kidding me??? I guess it was okay for the Native Americans to be wiped out because somebody else was greedy and wanted to "own" that land? So killing them all to get what they wanted is okay? That reason was the RIGHT one? Again, we don't "own" the land. It is not ours to own. The land does not belong to the government to give ownership of. We buy rights to that piece of property, but we don't own it.
I agree, that we have a responsibility as a steward - I don't see most people accepting that responsibility. Most humans think they have the right to use and abuse Mother Earth as they see fit - again, wrong. Humans don't have the right to wipe wildlife out of existence to make more room for strip malls, grocery stores, housing developments, golf courses, etc. We might be #1 on the food chain, but this does NOT give us the right to destroy this planet and its creatures.
And I will again state that just because we "think" we are smarter than animals, does't make it correct. We may have the ability to think and reason more than an animal, but that does not make us more "intelligent."
We, as a people, need to learn what respect is. Not just respect for wildlife and nature, but respect for everything. The only thing that most humans respect these days is money, and that is very, very sad.