Are animal lives worth less than human lives?

[lonerclown666]

I think not for me animals deserve to live like a human should i feel sad everytime i eat meat

 

[Snake of Eden]

I dont think animal life is equal to human life after all and to be grounded in realism rather than idealism, we need to kill animals to thrive wether for protein and fat source (cant be substituted with other alternatives) or to kill harmful animals like rodents that can threaten agriculture and spread diseases. We would have never been able to thrive as species without preying on animal life in a way or another but that doesnt mean animal life has no value. It too should be treated sacredly if there is no benefit gained from killing an animal then its life should be preserved

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

Worth more than my life, at least.

 

[Silenos]

I dont think animal life is equal to human life after all

I agree. Human life is worth far less.

 

[OrcWitch]

I can't say from any kind of ethical/philosophical standpoint what the ethics of this are. From an emotional standpoint I don't really care if things die to sustain my body. I don't feel the need to try to justify myself beyond that. I respect people who care and make lifestyle changes though.

 

[CFLoser]

IF lives have inherent worth from some higher power that favors all life equally then yes, but I personally believe if there is a God it favors humans in some fashion. If humans themselves are the ones deciding which life is worth more than the other, then in most circumstances you would choose a human over an other animal.

 

[Pluto]

I stopped eating meat 20 years ago. Turns out we don't need it or the cruelty associated with it. Thankfully in modern times, all sorts of enticing meat substitute products are emerging, and will continue to do so until the 'livestock' industry ultimately joins slavery and genocide in the history books of infamy. Society is finally starting to evolve out of its Holocaust cuisine.

The philosophy is simple: cause a minimum of harm to others. Kill (animals or people) only if there is a genuine reason.

In saying that, very few people today agree with me and I respect that. Each to their own. But be warned, losing all empathy for animals is a precursor for losing all empathy for certain groups of people (ethnic groups, genders, political factions...). This is why the philosophy I speak of strictly includes responsible treatment towards all beings, to avoid initiating that slippery slope.

 

[Bleak]

It's a complicated question and my brain is too feeble to mount any real argument. I feel like animal life is worth at least as much as human life and I feel guilt for all the animals that died needlessly just to fill my stomach. Don't know if this is related but I kind of want my body to be left in the wilderness to be eaten by animals and plants after I die.

 

[LONE WOLF.]

I believe all animals are worth way more than human's!

 

[mlha]

Life has a negative value, because of suffering. The more self-aware lifeform the bigger magnitude of that value, i.e. the human lifeform is less than other animal lifeforms which is less than plant lifeforms.

 

[Callie Arcale]

All matter in the universe is made up of the same building blocks. The only difference is that these building blocks are rearranged in various ways giving rise to a multitude of things. But at a fundamental level everything is the same. All things being the same, they have the same "worth" : zero.

 

[Skathon]

"Other animal lives". Both your question and your statement are speciesist.
Regardless: all lives have the same value.

 

[rationaltake]

I like the Buddhist perspective. All beings are of equal worth and value.

 

[nex]

Well we're animals ourselves. A pig has pretty much the same feelings and instincts that we do, it doesn't have abstract thought like (some) humans do, but other than that we're pretty much the same thing. I don't make a life's worth depend on its intellectual prowess, or else some AI's might be worth more than humans. To me it's the feelings of pain, fear, joy, survival instinct etc. that make a life worth being protected. And in that regard there's no reason to assume a pig is any different to us.

In fact, aside from intellectual abstraction, the other thing that separates us from other animals is the sheer amount of destruction we inflict on the world. There have been some great mass extinction events in the history of Earth, the most recent being the one that brought an end to the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, most likely caused by asteroid impact. Right now we're in the middle of the next great mass extinction, caused by humans. And we're on our way to cause even more destruction through climate change. Mankind is probably the most destructive species that has ever lived.

Given our abundance and the extreme destruction we're causing, one might argue that we're worth less than other animals.

 

[Fk_life]

I don't really care about the lives of animals besides my pets. I do believe humans are worth more though.

 

[Dreamlike Reality]

We are really all animals ~~ I am not a human so I feel like my opinion is disqualified here but all life is worth less than what you think. There is no hierarchy of worth , there is life on earth and the worth is all the same and that makes it worthless ! I don't eat red meat of "animals" however , but that's just me <3 It is just a matter of taste preference. I like fish a lot though