Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a branch of social psychology that has shown through hundreds of experiments around the world that when people are reminded of their personal mortality they tend to become more speciesist; they try to unconsciously cope with the reality that we are animals and our ultimate fate is the same as all others. These findings provide a way to understand why, despite decades of efforts to protect other animals from human abuses, we continue to largely objectify and distance ourselves from them. We continue to use other animals in factory farms for food, for research, for entertainment, and many other forms of exploitation. In this presentation I will discuss these findings and how we might find a way to use them to move towards a more compassionate – or at least a more understanding -  relationship with the other animals.