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Quote: from Black Sheep at 12:26 am on April 25, 2008

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Quote: from Da Bears at 3:09 am on April 25, 2008

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Quote: from Black Sheep at 11:51 pm on April 24, 2008

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Because humans are specieists. It's like programmed in our brains.  

  Personally, I feel more sympathetic to animals than humans. I hate people.

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  Probably...  

  do you really mean that? I mean, you'd be more sad if your mom died than if your dog died, no?

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 eh, probably not.  

 Okay, I hate most people. About 99.9%

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lol, then whydja say it?

You're apathetic about most people. I think you have to love someone before you can hate them.

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No, I do not believe so. There are plenty of people out there you can hate without having to "love" them first.

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Agent Provocateur

Okay guys that is a joke....lets see if  (a) anyone gets it, and (b) the relevance of it.

HINT: think nodding dog TV advert, the one that sells car insurence.

HINT 2: "....One ball, the other, in the...."

first correct awnser gets a cookie, and a link to my favorite tranvestite porn site  

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The truth is what money can be made from a lie.

I mean, if you're comparing a world champion race horse to some hobo in the street, naturally I'm going to favour the racehorse. One could only wonder what it could have achieved if it had the same opportunities as the hobo.

I think it's because animals do not have feelings that we can truly relate to, making them therefore more distant in our relationships with them.

Whereas we know what another person feels, which may make us more attached to them.

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Ducking for apples - change one letter and it's the story of my life

That said, I think you're bringing up different points here. I'm pretty sure people would be extremely outraged at the idea of a horse being shot for no good reason; contrarywise, euthanizing animals and euthanizing people is often something that doesn't provoke much outrage, particularly in a situation where there is absolutely no hope for recovery. You're comparing apples and oranges. It's like saying that people would be more upset to find out that someone was using their garage as a place to wantonly slaughter dogs for no good reason than they would be to find out that a brain-dead accident victim was taken off of life support.

With that out of the way, I think that when it comes to favoring humans over other animals, it boils down to biology. You don't often see, for example, an elephant getting all upset over the baby baboon it trampled, but you're sure as hell going to see an angry momma elephant if you kill her baby (as a side note, it's really interesting to see the range of emotions elephants have...you wouldn't expect it from them). Animals are more likely to be interested in protecting and aiding even the worst-off members of their own species than they are to be interested in rescuing the poor mice that they ought to have for dinner. Even with morality and abstract thinking, the biological impulse to make sure that our species is alive and able to procreate is stronger than our pity for other animals, and that is how things are throughout the animal kingdom. Give your dog a choice between saving your life and saving the lives of her puppies and she's going to choose her litter.

Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that euthanasia and just killing creatures for no good reason are entirely different things. When animals are euthanized (and when people are euthanized), it's generally at the end of a long road and there's typically no hope that they'll recover, so the choice is made to ease their suffering and let them die peacefully in their sleep, rather than die a long and painful death. On the other hand, your idea of just killing mentally retarded people has no point...they still have potential, whereas, nine times out of ten, an animal or person who is euthanized has reached the end of his or hers.

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Let yourself be enchanted,
You just might break through
To ever ever after

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First off, just a point regarding a horse being shot because it broke its legs (I'm assuming you're talking about Eight Belles here): many times, with those kinds of injuries, they aren't something that a horse can recover from. Unlike people, horses simply can't live if they can't walk; in the case with Eight Belles, both of her ankles had broken, and there was no way they could have done anything to help her recover.

That said, I think you're bringing up different points here. I'm pretty sure people would be extremely outraged at the idea of a horse being shot for no good reason; contrarywise, euthanizing animals and euthanizing people is often something that doesn't provoke much outrage, particularly in a situation where there is absolutely no hope for recovery. You're comparing apples and oranges. It's like saying that people would be more upset to find out that someone was using their garage as a place to wantonly slaughter dogs for no good reason than they would be to find out that a brain-dead accident victim was taken off of life support.

With that out of the way, I think that when it comes to favoring humans over other animals, it boils down to biology. You don't often see, for example, an elephant getting all upset over the baby baboon it trampled, but you're sure as hell going to see an angry momma elephant if you kill her baby (as a side note, it's really interesting to see the range of emotions elephants have...you wouldn't expect it from them). Animals are more likely to be interested in protecting and aiding even the worst-off members of their own species than they are to be interested in rescuing the poor mice that they ought to have for dinner. Even with morality and abstract thinking, the biological impulse to make sure that our species is alive and able to procreate is stronger than our pity for other animals, and that is how things are throughout the animal kingdom. Give your dog a choice between saving your life and saving the lives of her puppies and she's going to choose her litter.

Furthermore, you have to keep in mind that euthanasia and just killing creatures for no good reason are entirely different things. When animals are euthanized (and when people are euthanized), it's generally at the end of a long road and there's typically no hope that they'll recover, so the choice is made to ease their suffering and let them die peacefully in their sleep, rather than die a long and painful death. On the other hand, your idea of just killing mentally retarded people has no point...they still have potential, whereas, nine times out of ten, an animal or person who is euthanized has reached the end of his or hers.

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Ok lets say someone is a paraplegic with no chance of recovering.

Shoot 'em?

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LOST fans, click here.

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[Mentally retarded people] still have potential, whereas, nine times out of ten, an animal or person who is euthanized has reached the end of his or hers.

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Still a different situation, as their paraplegia isn't necessarily life-threatening. When animals (and people) are euthanized, it's in response to a situation that will most certainly end in a very painful death for the animal (or person) involved. Didn't you read what I said about potential?:

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[Mentally retarded people] still have potential, whereas, nine times out of ten, an animal or person who is euthanized has reached the end of his or hers.

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Not true at all about the animals, dogs are euthanized in huge numbers every day only because there is an overpopulation problem and the shelter can't find them a home.

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LOST fans, click here.

I should also point out that, by your logic, you should also be against spaying and neutering animals.

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Let yourself be enchanted,
You just might break through
To ever ever after

What you said where you quoted yourself isn't true.

No? No, I don't think I should be against spaying and neutering.

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LOST fans, click here.