If we were to one day encounter a form of life more powerful and intelligent than our own, and it regarded us as we regard fish, what would be our argument against being eaten?
It's always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep.
We live in a world in which it's conventional to treat an animal like a hunk of wood and extreme to treat an animal like an animal.
What we forget about animals we being to forget about ourselves.