Very simplistic, but which would be worse for you, if you remained: all of the other people on earth disappearing or all of the animals disappearing (for this scenario, neither would affect anything biologically, chemically, etc.)?
Oh, I’m definitely saving Osama bin Laden. I can turn him in for $50 million!
I am not against the killing of dangerous or delicious animals.
Sorry, I was referring to Cheney as being reptilian.
The humans disappearing would be worse.
:rolleyes::rolleyes:If you feel you’re such a burden on the ecosystem and all…
These sort of posts are really beyond on the pale. Eco-guilt.:rolleyes::rolleyes:
The OP asked for opinions, and I gave mine. You don’t have to like it. I don’t like people’s opinions that humans are above animals.
No.
If Jigsaw captured you and made you choose to either kill an animal or a person, you would choose the person? What do you mean that you value animals more than people? I dunno… I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but I just can’t wrap my mind around such a mindset.
I guess I take the other extreme. I’m sure I could find an exception if I thought hard enough, but in general any human life for me is more valuable than any animal life.
Re: the OP’s question, I do, in many ways, value a human life more than any other animal’s. There was a time when I would have liked to say differently, but it would’ve been a lie. One clear example: I’m not exactly itching to shut down the world’s slaughterhouses, and I definitely don’t think of them as the sites of some great animal Holocaust, yet if I knew something similar was happening with humans, I’d be aghast; I’d hopefully fight passionately for their eradication, and definitely bemoan the wicked, wicked world that brought them into existence.
Value is a choice or a determination. Nothing actually has any intrinsic value. That’s only a linguistic shortcut for saying that someone values something to a certain degree.
And of course, how much people value animals depends on the people. I’d say the majority of people value humans more than animals, and certain animals such as horses, dogs, and cats more than animals that they eat or animals that they dislike (insects! bats!) or animals that they don’t pay attention to (bacteria). There are some people (Jainists?) that value all life somewhat equally and try not to step on bugs. And some people that value animals more than humans (extreme animal rights activists).
I’m mostly in the first group. I’ve flirted with vegetarianism and still am weighted towards it, but I eat meat too, although I prefer organic/free range. Sometimes I’ll shoo a bug out of the house rather than kill it. Spiders however are my arch enemy and existing in my house is a capital offense.
Random human vs random animal, human stays.
After that, circumstances vary. I would drown a thousand puppies with my bare hands to save my child. But I think I would save a fern over a hardcore criminal.
In the doggie hostage situation described above, there is no excuse to shoot the man to save the dog, not with the little info provided.
Your saying that its not fair to shoot a man who killed a puppy for fun?
I am saying that it is not fair to shoot someone holding a dog hostage without knowing what else is going on. I am seeing a lot more nuttiness than evil in this guy.
Suffice to say I’m not an animal rights activist or a vegetarian or Jainist - I just think it’s the height of human ego to put ourselves above the earth we live on and all the creatures on it instead of considering ourselves part of the earth and her living organisms. Since we’re so smart and self-aware and stuff we should be making it our business to look after everything instead of wrecking it.
Ah, indeed, this I can totally agree with. We should be stewards of the earth, not consumers.
As a part time firefighter and a full time 911 dispatcher, I have done my fair share of saving people and animals, (pets, farm animals and wild life, most of the animals were on the FD side of the job).
Whether its right or wrong, I do value a human’s life over an animal’s life. If I were in the position that I had to choose from rescuing a person or an animal, I would choose the person everytime, with no thought to who they are.
At the same time, I was once a pet CPR/First Aid Instructor, and am currently a proud owner of two Labs, that I would probably risk my own neck to save if it came to that.
I am also an avid hunter and have no issues shooting an animal for food, but not just for the trophy.
Which side of the criminal justice system? Cop or criminal?
This.
I value individual human life (mine, my family’s) more than I value other life period. But I don’t consider humans to be outside the natural world or better than other animals as a whole.
As to which would be better for me…all the humans disappearing or all the other animals…would y’all go away already!
Madam, yes, I understood; my point was that I would save my son’s dog (those dogs are getting lots of press these days, too), because the dog saves human lives.