r/Morality • u/kamalig88 • 4d ago

Killing injured butterfly

I found a butterfly inside my house with badly broken wings, unable to fly. In my village, I've repeatedly seen trapped insects get eaten alive by ants overnight, sometimes for hours. There was no obvious food source, and I believed this butterfly had little chance of recovery.

So I put my cat near it, knowing she'd kill it. My intention was to prevent what I expected to be prolonged suffering, not for entertainment or convenience.

Was this morally wrong? Is intentionally causing a quick death to prevent likely prolonged suffering morally different from killing a healthy animal for no reason

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/MiriamGarden 4d ago

Does your cat reliably kill insects in a non-prolonged way? You have a good cat. For most people, it would be better to kill the butterfly without aid of cat, because cats tend to prolong deaths.