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Why is it that the vast majority of people with pets, will put their animal down if it is to stop them suffering, but only a percentage of these would agree to the same thing for a close relative (and usually they are suffering from something far worse than what we would put a pet down for).

AndyRegs wrote:Why is it that the vast majority of people with pets, will put their animal down if it is to stop them suffering, but only a percentage of these would agree to the same thing for a close relative (and usually they are suffering from something far worse than what we would put a pet down for).

cos they can go buy a new one that looks kinda similar?

overall, i reckon its a mix of morals, empathy, conditioning, love and visualisations that put (most of) us off...

if we were raised on hunting other folk, we'd find it natural wouldnt we...

We instinctively know to care for our young, and we also see the babies of many other species as cute, too. The big eyes, the helplessness, the gurgles, all go to make us want to protect. I genuinely don't like children (the witless midgets!) but I couldn't bear to see one harmed. If I remember correctly, it's something to do with the secretion of oxytocin, the "love" hormone. Now, if it's instinct rather than a learned behaviour, it must be genetic, and if it's genetic it must be there because it has survival advantages for our own species.

For instance, could we have survived as a species if we saw our own babies as food? No, we'd have died out. It has wider survival implications, too. Could we have developed farming [and thereby laid the foundations for civilisation] if we simply ate every baby animal we found? Again, no (yes, I know we eat lambs, but not all lambs). Even if we intend to eat an animal later, until that point it's in our interest to look after it. But our desire to protect and nurture doesn't extend to the young of species we don't see as cute. A nest of baby spiders or baby scorpions being sprayed with a flame thrower doesn't evoke the same reaction as when it's a box of kittens or puppies, for instance.

This ability to see the young of other species as something to nurture also breaks down the lower you get down the food chain, arguably because it doesn't matter so much because of the numbers involved. By the time you get to rodents, eating your own young is a survival technique for when times are hard, in fact. This is difficult to comprehend when we see it happening in something we see as cute, like a hamster. Surely cute = loving

Other than in humans (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the primates) it's actually very rare for one species to see the young of another species as anything other than easy meat. The evolved defence mechanism against that is the herd.

I notice alot of people have said it is becuase of our instincts to protect are young, and no one has yet mentioned (im pretty sure anyways) that its also in our instincts to eat meat, or whatever we have to eat to survive. Which is why I dont get the vegatarian argument

Young man...I dont propose we eat our own babies. Thats proposterous. No...eat other peoples babies!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

morals are only defined by oneself surely? it's more of a taboo surely?

our morals, in a case of eating human flesh anyway, are defined by society surely.
there have been many cannibalistic societys around the world during history, some of it very recent. it certainly wasn't taboo to them.
did anyone see 'tribe' with that macintyre bloke on tv recently? he brought a few members of the 'insect' tribe from somewhere in africa over to england so they could see what it was like. they went to see 'stomp' and then went backstage to meet the cast and show them some drumming. when they'd finished the tribal elder told the cast that this was the beat they played before eating human flesh. well the stomp guys looked shocked until he was told they didn't do it anymore, but it showed that to the tribe's social structure it was not as taboo an act as it was to the westerner.

samstorey wrote:I notice alot of people have said it is becuase of our instincts to protect are young, and no one has yet mentioned (im pretty sure anyways) that its also in our instincts to eat meat, or whatever we have to eat to survive. Which is why I dont get the vegatarian argument

I'm the furthest thing from a vegetarian, but there is absolutely no evidence to prove that it is instinct to eat meat. It's our instinct to EAT - in order to survive - but nothing more than that.

It's all about survival, not what's on the menu.

I'm the furthest thing from a vegetarian, but there is absolutely no evidence to prove that it is instinct to eat meat. It's our instinct to EAT - in order to survive - but nothing more than that.

I agree. When you are hungry, and you see a cow in a field, do you automatically think Mmm food, and bring down poor daisy with your bare hands. No, you go to the nearest shop and get a mars bar.
Point being, like Demitri said, our instinct is to get food, whatever that is. We are actually designed to eat either meat or have a vegetarian diet. You have a choice. It wasnt my intention to go into a debate about vegetarianism, and I'm not one to go on a veggie crusade, so I wont say anymore, but if anyone is interested why I dont eat meat, then feel free to PM me.

I did't want to sound like a vegatrian hater,
I would like to know your reasons thought, why not post it?

The only reason I didn't post my reasons for being a veggie, was because I didnt want to start that debate. I was more interested in our reasoning about things (and used the meat eating as an example, I could have used others) rather than the rights and wrongs of eating meat.
As the thread seems to be coming to a close, and if nobady has any more to say, I may post my reasons when I get a chance over the next few days.