It’s a matter of emotional perspective. If I have a cow as livestock, then I have the mindset that it should provide food. If I have a cow as a pet, then I have the mindset that it should be part of the family.
And yet we have overcome this innate selfishness in so many other aspects. Shrugging your shoulders and saying “Oh well, guess I just don’t care about these sentient beings getting killed for my convenience” is just lazy. We are better than that.
If we’re better than that we probably shouldn’t run zoos in the first place. The fact that we do tells me we have a long way to go and I’m saying this as someone who enjoys zoos.
It’s a matter of emotional perspective. If I have a cow as livestock, then I have the mindset that it should provide food. If I have a cow as a pet, then I have the mindset that it should be part of the family.
So then it’s about you and not actually about the pet?
Nobody accuses humanity of being rational. We are quite selfish about who we care for and who we don’t.
And yet we have overcome this innate selfishness in so many other aspects. Shrugging your shoulders and saying “Oh well, guess I just don’t care about these sentient beings getting killed for my convenience” is just lazy. We are better than that.
If we’re better than that we probably shouldn’t run zoos in the first place. The fact that we do tells me we have a long way to go and I’m saying this as someone who enjoys zoos.
Yeah I wonder what the common evil is here between for-profit zoos and making money by killing animals and selling their body parts.
It’s about showing that final bit of respect to a family member who has given us so much love.
Or do you put grandma in the dumpster?
I neither put grandma in the dumpster nor do I put pigs and other animals in a gas chamber, or pay for that to happen.