Literature introduced me to Animals

Novels like Timbuktu use human imagination to put ourselves in the shoes of the animals. It is only by inducing sympathy for these animals through things such as anthropomorphism that they can advocate a position and usually its for animal welfare. These novels are instrumental in creating change and its books like 'Black Beauty' and 'Call of the Wild' that have really changed the way that we perceive the animals that are part of our civil fabric. Rarely do people really consider what its like to live in a world where you have no control, are at the mercy of 'owners' and can do nothing but attempt to adapt to every situation that you are thrown into. Even though these novels are fictional it still demands the attention and consideration of what could possibly be true. Personally as a kid I would only read books that were centered around animals. I read the 'Thoroughbred' series, 'Misty of Chincoteague',  'Hank the Cowdog' and others. I think it may be one of the main reasons for why I'm so obsessed with animals and so sensitive towards their needs - especially because growing up we didn't have animals. My parents are Korean and pet owning was not very big when they were kids. We had fish sometimes but they never lasted long and we had a small Sheltie but he ran away because our Grandpa tied him to the front porch and would never let him inside and we didn't have a fenced backyard. Eventually when I got older my parents allowed me to have a dog which I was able to train and take care of, but it's obvious that my love for animals originates from literature. 

And even though writing that gives animals human attributes is seen as wrong because its a misguided representation of who they are, it seems necessary when your audience is human. How else are we to understand them? Even if it is selling them short, I believe it gets the point across that they have needs just like we do, and that its better to suppose that they have capacities just like us and maybe more, than to suppose that they don't at all. Lets give them the benefit of the doubt.