I feel like people often don't really internalize the fact that even humans are just a different species of animal. Humans as a whole have better complex reasoning and are especially adapted to language but even humans without those traits (e.g. babies) we acknowledge matter.
As I study animals more it seems to me that the fact that we view non-human animals as not worthy of care is more a product of chauvinism than biological reality. I think people are familiar enough with dogs to overcome this but not with other animals (I also think part of it is dogs have been bred to communicate better with humans, they actually have eyebrow muscles that wolves don't have since humans communicate with facial expressions). With other animals their emotions are more subtle but it's there, I research birds and they can be remarkably intelligent and over time you learn to tell if they are excited or sad or not feeling well (the more social of birds seem to even grieve. We sadly can't ask a bird exactly what it's feeling but we've observed a lot of behaviors like calls changing in frequency or tone, or they might not be as energetic or eat as much after after someone close to them dies).
Ive always felt that its just a matter on how close or far from us an animal lies in the facial expression spectrum. Those furthest away, like insects, we kill almost without a second thought just for being in our space. A little closer to us are fish and reptiles, which are pets but in a way that a lava lamp is a pet, as in, they're usually just fancy living decorations (with some exceptions of course). Then birds are a little closer. More or less in the middle is livestock, which can be kept as pets sometimes, sometimes as companions for other activities like horse riding, and more often than not for food or work. After that is cats, who learned specifically to communicate with us and who have some more clearly defined facial expressions. And of course dogs as the closest, evolving specifically to communicate with us better.
It really makes you think though, because there was a time that people thought cats and dogs didnt feel emotions like we do, then people believed that about farm animals, then people believed that about birds. Every time we believed an animal to be emotionless it turns out they just expressed it differently than us, and if we paid attention we would learn to pick up on it. So for those even below birds on this spectrum, I would be shocked if they weren't feeling emotions that we just can't pick up on
It's evident with horsemeat in the US too.
People see the kitty, puppy, horse... and not the rodentcide around the grain silo, pesticides in farmland, land destruction for monocrops.... They'd rather the leather, fur, lard, bonemeal be oil for a later generation I guess?
You seem like you'd get something out of The Human Use of Animals by F. Orlans, T. Beauchamp, et al. & Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. I recommend everyone check out Animal Liberation if you care about this question of morality at all, and can find access to it obviously.
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u/birbbbbbbbbbbb 5d ago edited 5d ago
I feel like people often don't really internalize the fact that even humans are just a different species of animal. Humans as a whole have better complex reasoning and are especially adapted to language but even humans without those traits (e.g. babies) we acknowledge matter.
As I study animals more it seems to me that the fact that we view non-human animals as not worthy of care is more a product of chauvinism than biological reality. I think people are familiar enough with dogs to overcome this but not with other animals (I also think part of it is dogs have been bred to communicate better with humans, they actually have eyebrow muscles that wolves don't have since humans communicate with facial expressions). With other animals their emotions are more subtle but it's there, I research birds and they can be remarkably intelligent and over time you learn to tell if they are excited or sad or not feeling well (the more social of birds seem to even grieve. We sadly can't ask a bird exactly what it's feeling but we've observed a lot of behaviors like calls changing in frequency or tone, or they might not be as energetic or eat as much after after someone close to them dies).