"Why did you tell the media that ridiculous lie?" Asked one scientist to another after the press conference.
"For the sake of those transformed by the virus." A second scientist replied.
"How in the Hell is that supposed to HELP them?! You want to legally not be people to be experimented on or 'put to sleep?'" THe first scientist exclaimed.
The second scientist shook his head. "It's a NEW WORLD Benjamin, it's not like it was in the old days. Why do you think lab animals have been phased out? Why animals are now legal at circus' more and more countries? And speciesism is now a word in the dictionary. Meanwhile, the words 'human trafficking' are used instead of 'slavery' because people can't take seriously the idea that after the civil war, all slavery in the world didn't magically vanish and its an evil that plagues the world to this day, and think it's the one thing that was made illegal that nobody practiced afterwards."
"What are you getting art Daniel?" Benjamin asked.
"What's I'm getting at, is that if they knew they were mutated human beings? They'd be freaks, monsters, abominations, who needed to be 'put out of their misery' in order to 'save their dignity.' They'd be playthings for the media to present to the masses for their amusement. But if they're uplifted animals? Then there's an army of animal rights group who will fight tooth and nail for them. They have infinitely more endearment to the public that way, they're victims of the 'evil humans', rather than just 'freaks who likely wanted to be that way anyway!' And we'd have the army ready to mutate 'volunteers' into their ideal killing machines, with little chance of a normal life once the army was done with them. But doing that to animals? They'd never get away with it in this new day and age."
"... So, this is our secret eh?"
"For the time being. It has to remain a secret, until the general public is ready to accept them as people."