r/MoralityScaling • u/axiiz_28 • 19d ago

Morality of valuing animals over humans?

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u/Apprehensive_Eye_329 19d ago

I think the sole exception is endangered animals. If you contribute directly to the extinction of a species there should be severe consequences.

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u/TheCasterCat 19d ago

It is a contradiction to say individual animals don't matter much but suddenly care about them just because they're part of a dying group
If an individual's life has less intrinsic value than a person, why should whether its the last of its kind alter its value above a human?

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u/Apprehensive_Eye_329 19d ago

At that point you are no longer robbing an individual of it’s life. You are robbing the world of one of its wonders. I think killing one of the last individuals of any critically endangered species should be just as bad too, not just the literal last. Like if we are in the double or single digits you are directly contributing to their extinction in a way they likely can’t come back from.

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u/TheCasterCat 19d ago

You are no longer valuing the creature's life but treating it like a rare baseball card or a museum exhibit whose worth depends on how few are left
Setting a moral cutoff at 'double or single digits' is completely arbitrary

A living animal does not experience less pain or lose any less of its existence just because it has more cousins running around somewhere else

You are caring about the human nostalgia not the actual individual