[renewiltord]

A recent car crash in San Francisco killed a man and his dog and many people on Reddit reacted with a comment like “Nooo! Not the dog!”

I thought that was ridiculous because these are just animals. It sucks when they die but it’s not the end of the world.

Another car nearby killed a little child and her father and that one was much more horrific to me.

But now it makes sense: to these people the two incidents were equivalent. I suppose that is normal, what with all the stories of animals caring for the young of other animals. Neotenic characteristics seem to have cross-species impact.

Very cool. Thank you for sharing this.

[I-M-S]

Animals now play a role that angels and similar religious concepts played in the past - an abstract ideal representing what is Good. It's difficult for a human to win this battle. No dog ever operated a sweatshop, dumped mercury into a river, or siphoned billions off to some tropical island somewhere.

[amanaplanacanal]

As they say, all dogs go to heaven.

[bitwize]

When tragedy befalls an animal, we tend to be more upset about it because animals are innocent. They're not aware like we are and can't make better choices when we can, so when they get caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, it's somehow sadder to a stranger than if it were an adult human.

You see this in cinema. We're relieved that the cat survives in Alien, even though we just watched several humans die horribly. And we kind of feel like John Wick's Roaring Rampage of Revenge is justified after the Russian mafia kills his dog.

[j_timberlake]

They're not innocent, they kill even when they're not hungry. If people evolved empathy towards them because historically they killed pests, that would explain why people love little murderers. The fact that the animals "don't know any better" isn't causal, mosquitoes don't know any better either.

[GuinansEyebrows]

"knowing better" implies a societal framework that animals just simply do not participate in.

i'm not a fan of housecats (based on their environmental impact) but i'm not going to hold them individually responsible or liable for things they legally cannot partake in (murder).

[ninetyninenine]

We evolved empathy towards them because of superficial cute features. Like puppy dog eyes and other endearing child like features. Dogs are evolving towards a parasitic role by hijacking our biological instincts to care for things that are small and cute. This instinct never evolved t the point where it specifically only applies to human cuteness because such selection pressure was unneeded. There were human babies and that’s it.

Dogs took advantage of this situation and they evolved to hijack our paternal and maternal instincts. Now there is selection pressure. But note dogs reproduce much much faster than humans so this will be an evolutionary arms race where dogs get cuter and humans become less interested in dogs. The first round comes when the people who have dogs instead of kids fail to reproduce. Also Expect an increase in dog allergies over time.

[atmavatar]

I like cats as well as dogs, but it feels obligatory to include this:

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill

[whycome]

> When tragedy befalls an animal, we tend to be more upset about it because animals are innocent.

This never gets reconciled with the reality of factory farms and mass meat production. It’s certainly a type of cognitive dissonance. In a hundred years we might look back on the now with horror (more generalized anyway).

[SoftTalker]

Because most people don't keep cows, pigs, and chickens as pets.

People who grow up even on small, non-factory farms see these animals as products for sale or economic assets, not companions. And even the dogs and cats are likely to be utilized for work as much as companionship.

[umeshunni]

> In a hundred years we might look back on the now with horror (more generalized anyway).

You don't have to go a hundred years - most non-western societies look at western fascination with dogs and pets with horror, especially when couples with low rates of marriage, population collapse etc.

[renewiltord]

Which societies are those? It's got to be Africa, a little of the Middle East, and South East Asia alone, because East Asia, South America, even much of the Middle East is lower than replacement. By population, it's only Africa that really has this opinion.

[whyage]

It baffles the mind that people decry the death of a dog while munching a burger. Cows (or chickens, for that matter) are not less precious than dogs, and yet the vast majority of us eat as much and as many of them as they can afford.

[paxys]

> Cows (or chickens, for that matter) are not less precious than dogs

You can feel that way, and that's fine, but people are allowed to decide what they do or don't find precious. They are allowed to rank species and members within a species in order of most to least precious. There's no inherent rule that all life must be valued the same. Would you not be more sad about a human child dying over a cow? Would you not be more sad about a loved one dying about a random person you don't know a few thousand miles away?

[yesfitz]

The person you're responding to didn't mention "feeling". They made a moral statement. Feelings are something we deal with, morals are something we work to build. Confusing the two will lead to a very confusing life.

Additionally, your examples are passive. A more appropriate comparison would be "Would you not be more sad about killing a human child instead of a cow?" Of course you would be! But what if you didn't have to do either?

[IAmBroom]

Exactly.

By extension, what makes cows more precious than 800 lb. of algal scum? Heck, the scum at least is reducing CO2 content; cows support global warming.

Who's precious now???

[ivm]

Humans are remarkably skilled at extending-reducing the range of their empathy, often deep compassion is reserved only for the carefully selected in-group members. It’s even easier to withhold it when it comes to other beings.

[ninetyninenine]

It’s not baffling. Dogs appeal to our paternal and maternal instincts. They have evolved to hijack it.

They reproduce faster then us so puppies are able to get cuter then babies over generations and thus they are out competing us.

[johnea]

I would only agree to this to the extent that humans have engineered this "evolution".

That's why they're called "breeds", because humans bred them.

They're bred for cuteness, violence, but mostly they're bred for profit.

The "pet industry" is a rapid growth segment of the economy. If a pet is "part of the family", then isn't the "pet industry" basically a slave trade?

[ninetyninenine]

Yeah. They hijacked our maternal instincts and our productivity instincts. Dogs have evolved to the point where they now have humans handling artificial selection for them instead of relying on natural selection.

It's a 1000x speed up to have humans picking out the cute ones and deliberately forcing this forward to make money.

You have to realize that it's our own instincts driving this forward and if it detriments humanity then the traits of "seeking profit" or "seeking cuteness" become subject to natural selection. These traits will go away with time.

[triceratops]

Calves aren't cute?

[ninetyninenine]

Not as cute as doggos. You realize most people think puppies are cuter than human babies right?

[gcau]

If you're just eating a burger, you're not personally slaughtering the cow. Secondly, the relationship of humans and dogs is far different than humans and cows, dogs have evolved alongside us as companions, and cows are food.

If you had to choose between a family member dying or a totally random person dying, even though objectively they're both just humans, you're going to kill the random person, because you have feelings and emotions, and they are part of the equation. For the same reason you'd kill the random person, people would kill the cow, and want to save the dog.

[adsharma]

This is one of the reasons why I dislike "cattle, not pets" which is used in the SRE world to explain automation.

[GuinansEyebrows]

agreed. it's definitely descriptive based on the popular consensus, but... cattle are living, sentient creatures, too.

[tacocataco]

Is it legal to have a dog burger?

[IAmBroom]

Depends on local laws.