Humans and Other Animals

[Esper]

Humanity and animals have had a long history together, but what have been the consequences of that relationship for both sides? Maybe you think animals have had a great impact or a negligible one. Speculate about how things have developed or could have developed differently or, really, whatever comes to mind. Some ideas you may want to bring up:

• Changes to animal intelligence and behavior / domestication and "natural" vs. "artificial" arguments
• People's view of the natural world / how animals influence the way people look at the environment
• Influences animals have/had on human cultural/psychological/technological development
• The division between human and animal
• Ethical issues such as the morality of keeping pets and animal captivity/experimentation
• Future developments for the human-animal relationship / human-driven animal extinction

Let's have some fun discussion.

 

[The 100 Mega Shock]

Being dead is a big consequence for animals. Being nice to eat is a great benefit for humankind.

 

[DowntownDumpling]

I think humans and animals have had a great impact on each others' lives, but it may not have been for the better. I'm not going to present any evidence, because I don't wish to get into a debate, but I have been vegetarian for years, and plan to become vegan soon (I've been phasing animal products out for awhile). It's a personal issue to me.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

I dont see how animals have negative affects on Human's lives.

 

[Livewire]

I dont see how animals have negative affects on Human's lives.

So a a shark biting off someone's leg isn't negative? What about people who go into Anaphylactic shock from bee stings? Or people who get mauled by Pit bulls or other wild animals? While maybe not too common, animals can have very negative impact on peoples lives.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

Oh I forgot about those, but its not like those happen all the time as you said. I feel that humans have had a much bigger impact on animals then they have on us though.

 

[twocows]

Ethical issues such as the morality of keeping pets and animal captivity/experimentation

Oh boy, here we go. There's nothing wrong with keeping a pet. Groups like PETA are just a bunch of jerks trying to force their absurd ideology on others. Animals only have value in their importance to the world ecosystem and in their emotional value to humans. Otherwise, they're just walking multi-celled organisms who would be perfectly fine with watching you die in a fire while chewing some grass (or goring you). If someone wants to keep one as a pet, I see no problem with that whatsoever.

 

[Oryx]

My cat would live 4-6 years in the wild. He's 12 now. I think that would be considered a "positive impact" on him that he has at least 6 more years of life than he would have had if I hadn't pampered him like I do. (I love my cat :( )

The division between human and animal always did fascinate me though. I remember getting into an argument with a teacher about whether or not animals understood words. I said "my cat runs into the kitchen when I say "kitchen", how can you say he doesn't understand?" She told me "He associates that combination of sounds with the idea of the kitchen, he doesn't UNDERSTAND." I was baffled, because isn't that what humans do? The words we speak aren't innately imbued with meaning, we have to learn to associate it with its meaning. Just like my cat does.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

Keeping pets has positive impacts on both the human and the animal. The animal gets a safe home, and its every need provided, and the human gets companionship and enjoyment from the animal. Thats why people keep pets. However I do agree sometimes pets are treated badly by people, which shouldnt happen.

 

[Esper]

I also think that animals are a great benefit to people and don't see anything wrong with keeping pets as long as they're treated well, but I'd also say that animals have some value in their own right aside from their benefit to us or their place in the food chain since some of them (apes, dolphins, etc.) display a surprising amount of intelligence. That, to me, signals that they're closer to human intelligence than your average centipede or shellfish and that ought to be taken into account with how we treat them. Some of them could well have feelings or other aspects of individuality that we associate with humans.

 

[Rogue planet]

I don't think it's always good to have a pet. For traditional pets like cats and dogs, of course. But when people start keeping big cats as pets, that's going too far. Some animals are just meant to stay in the wild.

Animals only have value in their importance to the world ecosystem and in their emotional value to humans. Otherwise, they're just walking multi-celled organisms who would be perfectly fine with watching you die in a fire while chewing some grass (or goring you).

Y'know I hear people describe humans in a similar way. Would you have a problem watching an animal die in a fire? Are you useless if you don't have a positive impact on the ecosystem, or if nobody cares about you?

 

[Musician of Literature]

Oh boy, here we go. There's nothing wrong with keeping a pet. Groups like PETA are just a bunch of jerks trying to force their absurd ideology on others. Animals only have value in their importance to the world ecosystem and in their emotional value to humans. Otherwise, they're just walking multi-celled organisms who would be perfectly fine with watching you die in a fire while chewing some grass (or goring you). If someone wants to keep one as a pet, I see no problem with that whatsoever.

I am very against ownership of animals. See, if we hadn't domesticated animals back during the Neolithic Age, they'd probably be freer then they are now. See, if humans just let animals live and only hunt them for food. I mean, animals should be free and people should never had domesticated them. I'm gonna quote N and say they'd be "perfect beings" if we hadn't had major influence on animals.

 

[Esper]

I don't want to try to justify keeping animals (well, maybe I do to some extent), but I wonder how well we humans would have survived without the help of animals to pull our plows and keep pests in our grain storage under control. They were the "machines" of our civilizations for thousands of years after all. I can't help but think we'd have blunted our development.