Ownership of one's self in an interesting question as it does indeed form a hierarchy to owning everything else, which as you rightly pointed out means in principle you could sell yourself deliberately or inadvertently into a form of slavery.

Ownership of animals is an odd concept and something that has intrigued me for years. I do eat meat and have kept many pets in my life and I have enjoyed both immensely. (I am human)

We profit from animals in various ways from breeding for companionship to rearing for meat, skins, etc even perhaps earning a direct living from their work on film, television and modelling. They are all slaves and it strikes me as very interesting that in recent years there have been calls to re-evaluate the nature of rights, irrespective of ownership in relation to some animals, if not all.

Higher Primates; the Great Apes are first to come under scrutiny. There have been calls for a revision of human rights to include certain inalienable rights for Chimpanzee, Gorilla, Orang Utan. This has been perhaps conveniently boo-hooed / laughed at and swept under the carpet because it opens a floodgate of legal uncertainty which could (I envisage) eventually lead to the end of all zoos, the pet industry, meat production and medical laboratory testing.

It could one day lead to globally enforced fishing bans (even if to protect the rights of marine mammals and the larger fish as a first step) and the abolition of the continued destruction of the habitats of many important animals. I say important, but they are all really. What I perhaps mean is a keystone species, but nonetheless an arbitrary term today, and reserved for animals we recognise as having similarities to ourselves. If legally challenged in court, could slowly widen out through precedent to include co-dependent wild species. If you protect forests where Chimpanzee reside, the other animals may get inadvertent protection. this happens now but let's think long term. I am actually really intrigued by the idea of animal rights and where they lead us to in terms of our own understanding of who we are and our responsibility to our ecosystems.

Some animals enjoy a (captive & owned) lifestyle with better food, healthcare and even leisure activities than some humans. This is the choice and preserve of their owners.

Other animals live a torturous life, exploited and treated with minimal care, in the production of food mainly. For thousands of years we domesticated animals for our own welfare. Dogs for security and herding, Horses and Cattle for work and meat, Sheep and Goats for wool, milk and meat, birds for their feathers, their eggs and their meat and of course, pigs who being very intelligent are also often kept as truffle sniffers and pets. Where I live eating dogs and horses would be considered barbaric. Perhaps because of the way we see horses. But just a few miles away horse is considered a delicacy and in other countries dogs are eaten like beef.

These are all subjective notions. Animals have no self-ownership and I wonder if when a human eventually legally and successfully challenges court institutions with greater rights for some animals, where it will lead for them and their cousins and for us.

sorry, @dana-edwards I didn't mean to ramble on there, just got a bit carried away ! very interesting topics :)

I have to add, I read recently that as much as 50% of the animal mass on the planet has diminished in my lifetime (since the early 70's) and that's an incredible, almost unimaginable figure. Due to a combination of habitat loss, poaching, hunting, environmental degradation, pollution and climate change. It will be a wonder if there are any animals left. We haven't even mentioned plants !