• dlpkl@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I really, genuinely, fully don’t think you’d care to listen. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the social emotional capacity that dogs have far exceeds any other domestic animal.

    • chetradley@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’ve never understood why some people think emotional and human-based social capacity are the metrics by which we should value an animal’s life. I would think that their ability to feel pain, fear and sadness would be a better way to judge whether it’s ok to inflict harm, especially unnecessarily, on another species. Can you help me understand your reasoning?

      • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        We can measure an animal’s ability to feel pain, but fear and sadness are emotions, the exact thing that I’m talking about.

        • Zoot@reddthat.com
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          3 months ago

          You do know that Rats act very similar to a miniature dog yeah? They very much have an ability to express emotions similar to dogs. While I understand where you’re coming from, and personally could never condone the actions done above, Its hard to deny that in some cultures Dogs don’t have that connection that we value.

        • chetradley@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Ah I think I see what you’re getting at. I thought you were saying it’s a dog’s unique ability to convey emotions specifically to humans by mirroring our behavior that made them more valuable than other animals.

          It sounds like you’re saying they have emotions that other animals do not.

          While it’s true we can’t measure emotional intensity in animals, we can certainly observe their behavior and see that they will cower, flee or scream to indicate fear, and call out or wail to indicate sadness (something that has been observed in dairy cows separated from their calfs). I think anyone who’s spent time around these animals would agree that they certainly have the capacity to feel these emotions, and I don’t see why that’s any different from dogs.

    • PotatoKat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I do care to listen. Listening is what made me realize how untrue what you’re saying is. Sure they have a high emotional capacity but do you honestly think a chihuahua is more emotionally intelligent than a cow? Or a rat? To me it seems like you don’t fully understand how smart (and not just in problem solving) the animals we eat are.

      • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Why do you find it so incredulous to believe that dogs are actually that much more emotionally intelligent than cows and rats? Sure, cows and rats and pigs and horses can show emotional intelligence, but to believe it’s close to that of dogs is pretty shortsighted.

        • PotatoKat@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          So you think a chihuahua is more emotionally intelligent than a rat?

          Not every dog breed is the same and I bet if we treated cows/pigs/rats the way we do dogs they would be way more bonded to humans than they already are in their fucked-up breed to kill situations.

          If you think the situation in the OP post is fucked but wouldn’t bat an eye if the same was done to another animal then Idk what to tell you. It’s all fucked. We essentially torture creatures that feel love, happiness, sadness, that feel it all, just so we can overproduce and toss out what isn’t sold (while also making sure people stay hungry). You only think it’s different because they share a “special” (read:manufactured) bond with humans. Idgaf about them caring for humans more. I give a fuck about their ability to feel period. Dogs don’t feel more love than cows. Dogs feel more love towards humans

          • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I do, and if you don’t think that chihuahuas are capable of being more emotionally intelligent than a rat then you haven’t spent much time around them. A family member of mine had one growing up, and while it was a chatty little shit it was also incredibly emotional.

            I agree that there are absolutely differences amongst breeds and that would probably extend to other species as well. I don’t agree with eating animals or raising them to kill them, especially in the ways we do.

            I don’t understand what you mean by manufactured, it’s a result of the co-evolution between our two species that’s occured for thousands of years, and by all means natural. I don’t agree that cows can feel more or equally to dogs, I still think that dogs are a more emotional animal and deserve person status. I want to, but I can’t say the same about other domesticated species, including cats. Some other animals that I would consider affording such rights to would be primates, cetaceans, elephants, and octopuses. I haven’t seen the evidence that rats and cows are at that level.

            • PotatoKat@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              then you haven’t spent much time around them

              I would argue the same to you about rats and cows. My cousin had a chihuahua, I never said they weren’t emotional.

              We specifically bread dogs to be the way they are. They didn’t just evolve along side us, we chose the wolves that were less aggressive and specifically bread them, breeding out the traits we found undesirable over the years and breeding in the mutations we liked. We never did that with any other animal except to make them more dense for eating. That’s what I mean by manufactured, humans (through an extraordinary long amount of time) created the dogs we have now. It’s not like it just happened out of nowhere, we made it happen (I’d actually argue our bond with cats is more natural in that sense).