can someone help me.what does it mean when edwin tells cole what you do to a animal you do to yourself??

Edwin is trying to explain to Cole that the natural world in interconnected. We are as much a part of it as another animal How we treat animals defines who we are. Hurting an animal is a negative force which, in the end, affects the violated as well as the violator. It's sort of a Native Indian karma sort of thing. Each living thing is connected to each other in ways Cole doesn't yet understand.