Animal and "human" life.

[Deleted]

I like animals, and love my pets. I find animal cruelty to be incredibly inhumane, and think that animal abusers are often not sufficiently punished for their cruelty. I do not disregard animal life, and am a supporter of several local wildlife preserves (seeing as I hike around them all the time). But I draw a distinct line between animal and human life, and 99% of the time I'd gladly choose the lowliest human over an animal.

When I see the argument crop up that animal lives are equatable to human life I honestly can't tell if people are being disingenuous, or have some serious social problems.

From PETA to the charlatans who filmed Blackfish (look up some of the controversy with that film) I can't get over the feeling that this is one of the most hyperbolic political stances. Animal life is decreed as this mystical, or indeed sacred, thing different than the base and corrupt humans who lord over them.

What is it that drives someone to become so disconnected that they treat animals not as fellow creatures, but as fellow humans?

[Raptor With a Saber]

Because Humans are in every way shape and form worse than animals and always will be. Id save an animals that before i would that of a humans doesnt matter the age. Animals are unlike humans actually born innocent and not pre programed to destory everything around them.

[Grush]

Because Humans are in every way shape and form worse than animals and always will be. Id save an animals that before i would that of a humans doesnt matter the age. Animals are unlike humans actually born innocent and not pre programed to destory everything around them.

How do you feel about predatory animals?
(AKA all but the plant eaters)

[Darsithis]

Because Humans are in every way shape and form worse than animals and always will be. Id save an animals that before i would that of a humans doesnt matter the age. Animals are unlike humans actually born innocent and not pre programed to destory everything around them.

We're born innocent and none of us are pre-programmed to destroy everything around them. That's just serious hyperbole.

[nightfalls]

Animals are unlike humans actually born innocent and not pre programed to destory everything around them.

Pretty sure a lot of animals don't fit that italicized bill, regardless of anything else you said.

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How do you feel about predatory animals?
(AKA all but the plant eaters)

Not even that, but many animals will do it for defensive instinct.

[Deleted]

Because Humans are in every way shape and form worse than animals and always will be. Id save an animals that before i would that of a humans doesnt matter the age. Animals are unlike humans actually born innocent and not pre programed to destory everything around them.

You've never read anything on how chimpanzees torture and kill their own kind.

[AeneasBK]

I just figure they don't know enough about animals or give them a free pass because they're dumb but we don't get one because 'lots of people' decided this isn't how you behave.

I mean, checklist of predatory animals that kill their own race sometimes. And then all the other "sins". *shrug*

[GodlyBob]

This may very well be the pinnacle of first world problems. I am in such a good position that I can afford to give every other thing that can look back at me an equal standing in the cosmos as my family, friends, and neighbors.

[Tradewind]

Way too much grey area in this imo. People who hurt and torture animals are just as extreme as people like PETA. But there's a whole spectrum of animals and people in between.

Would I save a dog over a total stranger? Probably not.

Would I choose a dog over a total scumbag? I might have to think about it.

[Uvwaex]

You've never read anything on how chimpanzees torture and kill their own kind.

Note, one of our closest genetic relatives

[Deleted]

Way too much grey area in this imo. People who hurt and torture animals are just as extreme as people like PETA. But there's a whole spectrum of animals and people in between.

Would I save a dog over a total stranger? Probably not.

Would I choose a dog over a total scumbag? I might have to think about it.

I'm in the same boat, but you make a good point about PETA.

I think they're so vocal that they polarize those people in the middle away from even moderate activism or awareness.

[Revi]

We are, in the grand scheme of things, not inherently more worth than animals. We are only more worth/better from our own point of view, both out of instinct and necessity.

I don't place animal life as equal to human on a consistent basis, because that would absolutely cripple my ability to exist in modern society and with any kind of comfort, but I do see why some people have trouble accepting our biased moral code.

[Grimbold21]

Why would you choose the lowliest sort of human being over an animal?

[Tastyfish]

I thought human life is animal life tho.

[Deleted]

Why would you choose the lowliest sort of human being over an animal?

Well first off is that I'm human, firmware and all that.

But also you can choose to change, and said person may have the potential to have of great benefit to human, animals, or both.

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I thought human life is animal life tho.

Jeez.

Animal and "human" life. Quotation marks are there for a reason.

[Heathy]

I feel its a matter of intelligence really, we have the ability to empathise and hold moral distinctions, where as animals don't or at least they can't express their ability to do so. as a hypothetical situation, a lion hunter getting mauled by lions, I don't feel pity for the hunter, but also know the animal has no concept of right and wrong.

I think it comes down to a matter of speaking for those who can't speak for themselves. after all life itself is pretty unique be that human life or animal life.

[Sindile]

I enjoy the company of the animals I work with more than most humans, just how it is

[Deleted]

I feel its a matter of intelligence really, we have the ability to empathise and hold moral distinctions, where as animals don't or at least they can't express their ability to do so. as a hypothetical situation, a lion hunter getting mauled by lions, I don't feel pity for the hunter, but also know the animal has no concept of right and wrong.

I think it comes down to a matter of speaking for those who can't speak for themselves. after all life itself is pretty unique be that human life or animal life.

Ever had a dog?

They definitely can tell right from wrong in a very basic sense, and can "sense" your general emotional state.

[Tradewind]

Cat's do as well... my cats know I don't like them on the table, and they jump there when I am not around, and then run away if they hear me coming.

They also come when I feel sad or upset, or sick...

Mine give me the fucking shit-eye and act like they don't hear me. Little fuckers.

[Anaeska]

We live in a society bound by rules. We created them. A lion may kill other lion and the cubs that are fathered by another lion. Then mate with other lions in the newly conquered pride and rule it till another lion comes to destroy. This is a cycle that repeats. Now do we see a trend here that affiliates us with them? Yes we did it in the past in the name of wars. Not exactly in the same fashion but similar.

Humans moral values change time to time. We are the same humans who once thought animals cannot think and they just exist. Now we they are equitable to humans. The question is not how we value/measure and compare human to animal life. The real question is how we come to value life in general? We don't feel the same compassion when we kill a chicken compared to killing a dog, cat etc.. surprisingly though, these days the bigger the size of the animal the better the compassion or the outrage. Not to mention the "cuteness" is another overwhelming factor. We do not mourn the death/killing of some some road kill/sloth/(i don't know some weird ass looking animal) compared to a cat or a dolphin. Everything has a conditional love and sympathy; if we disagree we are surely in denial.