Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Happy Monkey
Do you believe plants can feel pain, or that dogs can't?
|
If you are asking if I believe plants have a nervous system similar to mammals, then no; I didn't miss that much of biology class.
If you are attempting to set up a hierarchy of worthiness based upon how much a person empathizes with something then that is what I am referring to in my earlier post.
I find it pretty awful to use a live animal as bait on many many levels. But if you want to take the opinion for a moment that there is a hierarchy to creatures, and humans are somewhere in the top 5%, then it is probably more destructive to the people who are using animals as bait than it is to the animals being used as bait. After all, isn't it part of the argument that we humans have consciousness? And wouldn't it be taking a step down for a human to behave in such an uncompassionate way?
If compassion is a worthy trait of humans then isn't it somewhat false to say: "well, I have compassion for this creature because it is a lot like me, but bugs, well, bugs are kind of a nuisance so I don't really care about bugs. And while we're at it, fish don't really think, I mean scientists have proven that, so it is okay to just kill them. And vegetables can't run away, so they must have been meant to be eaten." etc.
So is it a conditional compassion and if so, based upon whose value set? At one end you've got the Jains who filter their water so they won't harm a single microbe (or so it's been alleged; I don't know any Jains) Most cellarites will agree that is pretty wacky. At the other end you've got any number of genocidal maniacs.
I don't have a special fondness for dogs or shark hunters, I'm just wary of the type of thinking that projects personal values onto creatures at large. The "live dogs make good shark bait" coin has two sides.