That human beings have greater cosmic significance than non-human animals is pervasively believed as a self-evident truth. For millennia, we have been informed that the interests of humans count more than the interests of animals, and that the lives of humans are more valuable than the lives of non-human animals. Reference to this alleged hierarchical importance has been used as the dominant justification for factory farming, hunting, and vivisection. It is well-past time to end this myth, and to show that once the reasons for received opinion are illuminated, the edifice for many of our egregious animal-related institutions collapses like a house of cards.