In this theory, reducing distress is ethically respectable, regardless of whether the suffering affects an adult, a child, or an animal. If it has the capacity to feel pain, then it is a due moral concern and must be taken into account in the process of moral judgment. The utilitarian view of moral agency presupposes that all living creatures receive due moral concern. Much like Tom Regan's Kantian views of animal rights, even those creatures lacking the ability to rationalize, such as a dog or cat, are given moral concern, since they are capable of doing so..