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Are humans more important than animals?

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Xocowolf, that's a wonderful post.

 

One of my majors is in Animal Science, which pretty much centers around "breeding and prepping animals for slaughter." Pretty much all of my AnSci classes have had a component on "how do these actions affect the carcass?" There are very stringent laws about the treatment of animals preceding and during slaughter, and it really is in farmers' best interests to follow them because improper treatment, high stress, etc do cause substandard meat. And there is a constant drive within the industry to improve upon humane standards-- take the work of Temple Grandin for instance.

 

And fyi, one of my other majors is Preveterinary, so believe me when I say I care deeply about animal welfare. :3

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Just last week, a friend and I were out and about, and we interrupted a cat catching a young robin. We wrapped it up in a blanket and drove 45 minutes to the nearest wildlife rehab centre.

 

It didn't survive past 24 hours, I'm sorry to say.

But what's the big deal, in the bigger picture? It's just a bird. Cats kill birds all the time. My cat Feitlebaum killed a squirrel right at my feet, while I was out working in the garden. I praised him. What made my friend and I rescue this bird? Strongly-developed sense of compassion, and we were there. It turned out to be a futile, inconsequential effort. Or did it really? Compassion is its own reward, and is never lost.

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I could go on, if you want. All of the sources I see say that while enjoying the action is included under the word "cruel", it's not necessary. So yes, nature can be cruel without being sinister.

This. A cruel action isn't always intentional, since cruel is something that can be defined only from certain standpoints. What we perceive as cruel is sometimes simply life. It would be cruel to leave your child to die in the wilderness, but perhaps it is the most pragmatic and practical choice - and Nature is, generally, practical.

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A lot of interesting viewpoints. Humans more important than animals...

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

An´i`mal

n. 1. An organized living being endowed with sensation and the power of voluntary motion, and also characterized by taking its food into an internal cavity or stomach for digestion; by giving carbonic acid to the air and taking oxygen in the process of respiration; and by increasing in motive power or active aggressive force with progress to maturity.

 

As one can see, the definition of 'animal' includes humans since we are an organized living being (society) endowed with sensation, power of motion, eating, breathing Oxygen and releasing Carbon Dioxide, and we certainly do have active aggressive force. So saying that a part of something is more important than the overall "whole" is a bit silly. Nature is as nature does, when one species dies out, it may or may not cause the extinction of another, but life does go on. Species will evolve to compensate, sometimes new species will spawn, but life does continue.

 

Humans have a wonderful gift called "choice". I say gift because 'animals' as most people know (quadruped, bipedal, winged, and the like) don't have "choice" but "instinct". Humans choose to either think of themselves as important beings and everything else is below them, perhaps not important; or they choose to think animals should be cherished, cared for, our role on this Earth (etc...), and the rest of humanity "can go hang" as someone once said.

 

Personally, I think we need to focus on taking care of and educating the rest of humanity. After all, endangered species are that way because of us, and it cannot get better without our education on what caused it. No amount of money to a charity of opening more zoos will do it (well, unless its a zoo that specializes in educating the populace).

Edited by Kaiea

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Humans are more important then animals, but tigers, I mean those animals we don't eat or use for something not related to entertainment are not really important...

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Humans are more important then animals, but tigers, I mean those animals we don't eat or use for something not related to entertainment are not really important...

All life-forms are important contributors to their ecosystems.

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Animals are able to survive without a human's presence. However, that doesn't mean we should neglect them. They don't need to depend on us, but some of them do depend on us. Honestly I would put animals first.

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Nicely put, 7Deadly. What may not be important to us, may be important to some other ecosystem. :applaud:

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We found a possum in the garage the other night, but I was too busy with study so Mummy and my brother rang up a centre.... but I find it difficult... I mean if it wasn't a native possum then they wouldn't have helped it out. That makes me feel a bit icky inside.

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We found a possum in the garage the other night, but I was too busy with study so Mummy and my brother rang up a centre.... but I find it difficult... I mean if it wasn't a native possum then they wouldn't have helped it out. That makes me feel a bit icky inside.

And they could tell it was a native possum... how?

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And they could tell it was a native possum... how?

Its accent.

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I am really not sure about this question. In some ways, I think that other creatures are just as important as us, because of ecosystems and things like that.

It is also weird that even though, compared to other animals we are relatively weak, that we have risen to be the dominant race on the planet. This just puzzles me.

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I am really not sure about this question. In some ways, I think that other creatures are just as important as us, because of ecosystems and things like that.

It is also weird that even though, compared to other animals we are relatively weak, that we have risen to be the dominant race on the planet. This just puzzles me.

It's because we're incredibly adaptable and intelligent.

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It's simple as this. Tigers can and are being conserved, they are also rarely poached anymore, because of laws. People on the other hand, are dying. There are children in Africa today dying every second because of the famine. Tigers have a strong supply of food, that they can an do catch. Humans are, lets face it, not as good of hunters as tigers can be. We don't rely on hunting skills, whereas tigers do, so they know how to do it. Heck, tigers have probably been around a whole heck of a lot longer than we have. Adam came AFTER the animals. Tigers are good, children are dying. Simple. Save the children!

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It's because we're incredibly adaptable and intelligent.

Eh, there's lots of intelligent, adaptable animals out there... it probably has more to do with the opposable thumbs and the bipedalism.

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Just because one species needs more help than another does not make it more important.

 

If kittens became endangered I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make them more important than puppies. The effect they have on our lives are the same whether they're overpopulated or endangered. Same with the ecosystem. And when people are given the choice of "An animal and a human are trapped under separate trees, which one do you save?" Of course people save the human, because they put themselves in the humans place. You understand what's going through the human's head. No one has any idea what's going through the animal's head other than the fact it is probably very confused.

 

I could put this example here, sorry if it is offensive but it's just an example. Say you feel more comfortable around Caucasian people for whatever reason. Does that make colored people any less important? No. Because everything is part of a balance, and when that balance becomes out-of-whack ( a bit like it is now ) limits really should be set there do need to be more deaths than births.

 

And I'm not saying I want people to die. Less people need to be born right now, because there are countless children who need loving homes and and so many starving children in Africa. But if you want to have a baby I'm not stopping you, there's nothing wrong with that, but it would really help if people stopped multiplying like rabbits.

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i would donate to animals no way i would donate to these horrible monsters called humans ... ( maybe not monster BUT we are not NICE creatures at all )

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Xocowolf's long post is pretty much everything that needed to be said here regarding different cultures and the meat industry. However, Xoco, there really are places that do chop up the animals while they're alive. Paralyzed, but conscious and alive. I mostly only hear it hitting local news level which means it's not as common as people like to make out, but occasionally when a big brand is caught doing it the story gets out on a national level (at least).

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i would donate to animals no way i would donate to these horrible monsters called humans ... ( maybe not monster BUT we are not NICE creatures at all )

This has been said and shot down before lol.

 

Mother Theresa was a HORRIBLE MONSTER AHHHH

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Yeah uh. Don't lump all people together in your 'grrr humans are horrible' statement. That is the worst thing you can do, I hate when people say things like that D:

 

Not ALL people are bad. No.

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Eh, there's lots of intelligent, adaptable animals out there... it probably has more to do with the opposable thumbs and the bipedalism.

Both are adaptations. We didn't start out that way.

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i always try to help animals, as i have always loved nature more than mankind. it always annoys me when my school helps donate to people, but never help animals in need

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Humans are more important then animals, but tigers, I mean those animals we don't eat or use for something not related to entertainment are not really important...

that's a horrible thing to say. just because something isn't important to humans means it's worthless and can die? that's disgusting! mad.gif

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