The bulk of Gruen’s first chapter in Ethics and Animals responds to the attitude (whether explicit or not) of human exceptionalism underlying our treatment of non-human life. Since exceptionalism relies on a uniqueness claim, the author investigates the contours that this empirical claim can take. Why is it the case that empirical evidence will always reveal a continuum between us and other species, but will, nonetheless, never satisfy the human exceptionalist? What is her position, in the end, regarding the appeal to “morally relevant characteristics” when it comes to the moral demands placed on us by any creature in need?