What are animals, and how can we give them the space and respect they deserve?

Western societies have shifted from the animals-as-machines paradigm to that of animals as teddy bears without much reflection as to their true nature. In so doing, we have confined animal welfare either to the moralistic and militant position of compassion or to the positivist position of scientific ethology. However, other approaches exist: for instance, realizing that respecting animals means allowing them to stay wild. But this could lead to an even more revolutionary abandoning of our materialistic beliefs and calling into question our Western mindset. Perhaps we are simply afraid of seeing animals as they really are: complex beings without which human beings would be nothing.