Many people talk of 'human beings (or man) and animals', rather than human beings and other animals. This emphasises a non-existent difference: human beings are animals, which is why zoonoses are so common. In many of the pages of this website we will use the term non-human animals in order to remind us all of our place in nature. Some of us would like to encourage the use of the phrase 'human and non-human animals', but this is probably just to irritate our colleagues.