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Elegarth

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    Pets(and why the world is a better place because of them)

    in The Lounge

    Posted

    That would be a lovely scenario to be in but I fear it is unachievable.

     

    As with anything, it is good to keep an ideal in mind (the way we think something should be) but, ultimately, we must be realists when it comes to making decisions about what we are doing and how we are going to solve problems that affect the real world. Real problems need real solutions.

     

    To play Devil's Advocate, why should animals be treated with respect? Animals are not sentient, they lack higher brain function and, most importantly, the philosophy of mind, meaning they cannot distinguish their own self from that of any other. What makes them [pets] more deserving of respect than a plant, the fish we eat or the cattle we raise for slaughter?

     

    I ask whether you would also offer the same rights for farm animals, all of which routinely undergo the same experiences of abandoned pets (if not worse experiences)?

    I agree, this is just an idealized world. And your points are obviously valid and many of them would lead us to a contradiction... So here is my view...

    Household animals (dogs, cats) have been reared so much that we have "humanized them" and while they do not have the sentience aspect we do, they do seem to have feelings and emotions very related to the humans they are close to (and let's accept this, as we know it to be truth; what is the nature of where this comes from is a discussion for another kind of topic). Hence, they deserve respect in as much as we created in them those emotional response towards our treatment of them.

    Animals raised for feeding, on the other hand, are not so "humanized" and hence may not go in deep into the same rationale, but then again, as living creatures we also owe them respect, and I personally believe the raising, herding and slaughtering of these animals for human consumption should be done with as much dignity, care and humanity as possible, without ignoring the fact that it is ACTUALLY a slaughtering...

    I know it may sound contradictory but nonetheless possible. My grand-grand mother (died 5 years ago) use to have chickens

    and hens at her house. All of them had name, and she used to go into her yard and be nice to them, even caress them, and the hens would come and sit on her a lot... And even then, once a year for X-Mas she used to sacrifice a hen for dinner. And I remember she always saying that she did it as quickly and painless as possible because it was "one of her dear hens"...

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