[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.