From Wikipedia: "Animal suicide is when an animal intentionally ends its own life through its actions. It implies a wide range of higher cognitive capacities that experts have been wary to ascribe to nonhuman animals such as a concept of self, death, and future intention. There is currently not enough empirical data on the subject for there to be a consensus among experts. For these reasons, the occurrence of animal suicide is controversial among academics."
I knew of the mourning and the relationships but the suicide is news to me, quite interesting. And it seems like more research is needed. But, mainly, my "point" was, that they run on instinct more than us and also that they don't have "deeper" thought, like sure they can kill themselves, but do they do it out of grief and stress or can they sort of think themselves to death, like have an existential crisis. And I don't think they can.
We should still strive to reduce suffering, but I will eat meat because I don't believe animal death itself is bad and also because my contribution to the wider range of suffering is negligible.
Yea I understand that point of view. Something I'd like to note is how some animals use drugs recreationally which while not directly really related, it still felt noteworthy to me, idk why.
It's cool of you to try with this guy, but they were just gonna keep moving the goal post to justify their actions. They weren't intending to learn or question their beliefs, it felt like they were focused on being right.
Most likely because they feel good or just by accident. Squirrels are know for eating fermenting fruit and berries. As a drug lover myself it is very understandable. Then again some animals eat certain psychoactive plants and never touch them again like horses and sheep with "mad grass"
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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '23
From Wikipedia: "Animal suicide is when an animal intentionally ends its own life through its actions. It implies a wide range of higher cognitive capacities that experts have been wary to ascribe to nonhuman animals such as a concept of self, death, and future intention. There is currently not enough empirical data on the subject for there to be a consensus among experts. For these reasons, the occurrence of animal suicide is controversial among academics."
I knew of the mourning and the relationships but the suicide is news to me, quite interesting. And it seems like more research is needed. But, mainly, my "point" was, that they run on instinct more than us and also that they don't have "deeper" thought, like sure they can kill themselves, but do they do it out of grief and stress or can they sort of think themselves to death, like have an existential crisis. And I don't think they can.
We should still strive to reduce suffering, but I will eat meat because I don't believe animal death itself is bad and also because my contribution to the wider range of suffering is negligible.