Value of Human Life over Animal Life?

[Reality]

Don't you ever think that human life is often.. over-valued? I mean, I don't "support" anyones death, murder or anything. But when it comes to life in general, human life is valued much more by us, to an absurd extent.

A man could go out and slaughter loads of pet cats and dogs, and the longest he'd get imprisonment for is about 10 years if even that, otherwise his human rights would be breached. But if the man were to slaughter one human being, he'd either get life or the death penalty (depending where he lives).

We consider things like slavery and exploitation of human beings big "moral" crimes (and I don't disagree, they are). But we keep animals in cages for pets, we farm animals.. we keep cattle and sheep in fields, or chickens in cages (intensive farming) for food, and it's completely okay.

Thanks to our own superiority complex, it's "unmoral" to test on humans unless they're proven safe as much as possible, and as long as they get paid or a reward for it. But it's completely okay to test stuff on "expendable" animals like guinea pigs, I mean who gives a fuck if they die a painful death, they're not "human", right? We say our reasons to test on mammals are because "they're not like us", but we ask say we shouldn't test on mammals and the response is the exact opposite, "they're not like us".

Animals may not be human, and yes they may live "insignificant" lives and don't really "do anything", and they're not as intelligent as us, but they still feel pain, and it's been pretty much proven that they do emphasize their fellow animals. If you try to take the babies of many animals mothers, they will react angrilly and upset - especially in animals like dogs, just like if you try to take a human mothers baby off her, she will scream at you and cry.

My point is, animals aren't like objects, and I'm glad to see many people support animal rights, but I still feel we over-value ourselves too much. I know that in the case of a fire, I'd save a human over a dog, but I think a better effort should be made to try and protect that dog.

[Sage]

If all insects were to vanish, life on earth would be terminated within 50 years. If all humans were to vanish, all life on earth would flourish. That's all I have to add for now.

[Camazotz]

I support some animal rights, but I am strongly opposed to PETA.(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) They support total animal liberation; they want all pets to run free in the wild. Many of their tactics are violent and dangerous. In some instances, they've been known to burn down animal testing labs.

I agree that we have to treat animals with respect, but humans are more important to me than most animals.

[Bougainvillea]

I agree with Matt.
I'm sympathetic to animals.
But I think any species would think their life is valuable. And maybe it has something to do with our intelligence.

[Atonement]

I am not one for the useless killing of animals, like hunting without using the meat. But, if they are here, we can eat them, but the people that think its cool to kick a dog on the street are fucking stupid. Furthermore, I don't believe animals are equal in society because we take them for granted. There are enough of them to make more for us to kill (Y). But, thats not really right because if I murdered someone and said, "Oh, there's only 6,772,999,999 more people, no big deal." It is very odd that we value our lives above others.

[marty]

It's only natural for any animal to want to preserve its own species over any other. That's what evolution has programmed us to do.

As for animal testing, what else to you propose we test on? All of these possible treatments and cures are only testable on animals. We could either stop testing on animals....or we could go without cures and treatments for carious diseases. I do feel bad for the animals...but it's kind of necessary.

[theOperaGhost]

I'm guessing you're a vegetarian....

I do value animal life, but I'm not putting it above mine. I'm going to always eat meat and love it. It's just the way it is.

[tripolar]

Here is the perfect example.

Michael Vick, he kills dogs and the public is completely outraged, anti-Vick rallies, PETA protests a lot of people mad.

Dante Stallworth he was driving drunk and hit and killed a man crossing the street the public out cry is nowhere near as high as with Vick.

People get longer sentences for killing people but the public gets much more outraged with the killing of animals.

[Reality]

It's only natural for any animal to want to preserve its own species over any other. That's what evolution has programmed us to do.

As for animal testing, what else to you propose we test on? All of these possible treatments and cures are only testable on animals. We could either stop testing on animals....or we could go without cures and treatments for carious diseases. I do feel bad for the animals...but it's kind of necessary.
Science is advancing, and we can now clone human tissue, and human organs like kidneys, liver, etc.

Not is this ethically better, but it's much more accurate in results too. For example, guinea pigs are immune to unlimited amounts of this vitamin (I forget which) but it can kill a human baby.

I'm guessing you're a vegetarian....
Admittedly, no. I wish I could, and I might do so in the future if I decide to take up a special diet, but no.

That doesn't mean I have to agree with the way animals are farmed. In fact, I support hunting and using the animals body (fur/food) more than I do farming, considering it is the natural alternative.

[Skeln]

With the killing of animals most often the animals have no hope and are cornered and beaten and such. If the animal is vicious and attacks someone, then yeah needs to be put down and if it's only vicious to the person beating it then I hope the animal comes on top. But yeah mostly with killing animals they are usually defenceless and so people get extremely outraged because someone would do such a stupid thing.

As for humans, well if it were an accident because of someone being stupid then the public shouoldn't get as outraged because it was accidental, but it could have been prevented. If it were murder or was viewed as murder then the public can get extremely vicious. That just happened near where I live a few months ago, an officer shot a man who he was arresting in the back there's video of it the officer says he was reaching for his taser but the man he killed was a black gang-banger and people viewed the policeman as racist and did it on purpose so they formed this huge riot and broke windows turned cars over lighted firesin garbage bins so yeah it depends on how the killing is viewed.

[The Joker]

Here is the perfect example.

Michael Vick, he kills dogs and the public is completely outraged, anti-Vick rallies, PETA protests a lot of people mad.

Dante Stallworth he was driving drunk and hit and killed a man crossing the street the public out cry is nowhere near as high as with Vick.

People get longer sentences for killing people but the public gets much more outraged with the killing of animals.

Not that I agree with them, but Michael Vick is a famous person, and animals are perceived as being totally helpless. That's why.

I live in BC, there are lots of bears here. I find it stupid when they shoot the bears because a human was dumb enough to try and screw with the bear.

[Bougainvillea]

Not that I agree with them, but Michael Vick is a famous person, and animals are perceived as being totally helpless. That's why.

I live in BC, there are lots of bears here. I find it stupid when they shoot the bears because a human was dumb enough to try and screw with the bear.

Like that one guy who spent his life studying bears, then he and his GF were killed by one. lol

[The Joker]

Exactly, and then they try and kill the bear over that. Bears naturally kill when seemingly put in a bad position.

[Bougainvillea]

Yeah.
I'm going to be sympathetic to all animals.
But I would still put my fellow human ahead of them.

[Kaius]

With the killing of animals most often the animals have no hope and are cornered and beaten and such. If the animal is vicious and attacks someone, then yeah needs to be put down and if it's only vicious to the person beating it then I hope the animal comes on top. But yeah mostly with killing animals they are usually defenceless and so people get extremely outraged because someone would do such a stupid thing.

As for humans, well if it were an accident because of someone being stupid then the public shouoldn't get as outraged because it was accidental, but it could have been prevented. If it were murder or was viewed as murder then the public can get extremely vicious. That just happened near where I live a few months ago, an officer shot a man who he was arresting in the back there's video of it the officer says he was reaching for his taser but the man he killed was a black gang-banger and people viewed the policeman as racist and did it on purpose so they formed this huge riot and broke windows turned cars over lighted firesin garbage bins so yeah it depends on how the killing is viewed.

I agree with you to a certain extent. I believe that it should be seen what kind of training the animal that attacked had. Because 9/10 animals that attack have had either little or no training, or have been training to do that.

I hate it when people abuse animals, yet they only get a few months imprisonment if that. I can safely say i value an animals life as equally as i value mine, because i believe we ALL have a right to be here. Ok so I freely admit im not a vegetarian, and alot of animal lovers arnt. But that doesnt give us the right to freely kick the next dog we see because its life isnt valued to the same level ours are. Not to say i wouldnt save a human life, id do anything i could possibly do to do so, but i would also do the same for an animal. I cant stand it when you see news articles about animals being beaten and killed because it couldnt fight back. it just goes to show how cowardly some humans are, if thats their reason for harming an animal. Not that any other reason is alright to do it.

[L]

It's only natural for any animal to want to preserve its own species over any other. That's what evolution has programmed us to do.

As for animal testing, what else to you propose we test on? All of these possible treatments and cures are only testable on animals. We could either stop testing on animals....or we could go without cures and treatments for carious diseases. I do feel bad for the animals...but it's kind of necessary.

i agree. whats 50 animal lives when it saves millions of ours?

[Jacobim Mugatu]

Its funny that people actually think that human life is valued over animal life. Micheal Vick was hated more than O.J Simpson ever was. He has actually received death threats, O.J hasn't. Not to my knowledge anyway. I think people would be less upset at him if he killed someone. People love their animals here in America, especially in California. But then most Californians are animals.

[quartermaster]

It is curious the human trait (pathogen?) to many a time call for the destruction of their own species, while seeing the good in other organisms, as to call upon the survival of them over us. Other animals live their entire lives just to reproduce and continue the chain, to ensure life goes on. Humans, on the other hand, would kill their children while still in the womb, reproduce so little as to reduce a population to near cultural extinction (look at the projected Japanese population by mid-century given current trends), abandon their children, not for the sake of survival, but out convenience, and then, when the day is done, call into question the systemic worth of a human life. Other animals do not do this; they see the survival of their kind as important, and above all, more important than any other species. As such, all animals are inherently driven by self-interest, why then, cannot humans? A greater question to ask is actually, why shouldn’t humans value human life more important than any other species just because that life is human? Other species do.

Perhaps it is that we stop to actually think about this and draw such questions that makes a human life in the grand scheme, more valuable, or perhaps not.

[liveyoungdiefast]

I think the value of all life, human or animals, is completely subjective.

I would rather 10 dogs die than my girlfriend. But I would rather 10 children die than my girlfriend if it was down to that too. Certain people and a few certain animals are valuable to me.

[INFERNO]

I support some animal rights but I don't support groups such as PETA. I have no problem with medical testing on animals and I'm less flexible for cosmetic tests. However, in asking if human life is more or less significant than other animals' lives, naturally many of us will be biased in favouring the humans.

With that being said, when it comes to sacrificing an animal life vs. a human life, it depends on who the person is and how well I know the animal and what kind of animal it is. If I know the dog more or like the dog more than the person, then I'm saving the dog and if I have time, then I'll consider saving the human but otherwise, the person dies.

I do feel that it is rather absurd when people torture animals and get rather small and lenient sentences yet if you torture a human (which from an evolutionary perspective is an animal also), you get an enormous sentence. I think that part of this has to do with bias towards humankind.

I also then find it rather ironic that if a human beats another human or another animal to a pulp (but the animal or human still lives) then the human doesn't get too large of a sentence. However, when an animal bites a human a few times, people immediately want to kill it. This I don't understand. We don't kill one another merely for stepping on someone's toe, for stealing, for punching someone a few times, etc... . Yet when it comes to another animal, we immediately say "screw it, it must be put down". Why? Some animals are vicious but look at humans, we're vicious also, probably more so than other animals. If the animal has rabies then I can understand why one would be more inclined to kill it but if the animal doesn't, then why not just let it live? Health care is advanced enough to generally treat whatever injuries there may be.

[Modus Operandi]

I do value human life over animal life, but not by much. It is instinct to save members of your speices over other spieces.

PETA pisses me off. They are extremists who would rather the whole world die out then humans benefit from some medical experiments. /rantage

Humans are speciesist, meaning we favor ourselves as a speices over all others.
But the Michael Vick case is a good point, we are outraged when animals are killed.
But at the same time, most of us don't care when animals are killed for medical research, myself included.

We care when they're(animals)killed for no reason.

[Grey fox]

This thing that people care when animals are killed, one dog caused outrage beucause of the way it was portrayed in the media.

Nobody gives a damn about the thousands of male chicks which are minced every day, they just want those "finger lickin' good chicken nuggets"

Animal life is not valued enough, in my opinion.

Before anyone asks, I am not a vegetarian or vegan, I am just very anti intensive farming and very pro organic, for amyn reasons as well as the fact i've grown up on a dairy farm, which went organic 10 years ago, and the cows are now a lot better looked after (beucase there is the money to afford higher levels of care) and valued.

Seriously though, quick point, a pint of milk is valued by the distributors as 25p, MAX, but it costs AT LEAST 27p to produce that pint of milk.

Modern farming = crazy