I’ve been discussing with my sister (a big fan of her cats) about what lives we would save in an emergency. I think a human live is worth more than an animal’s no question asked but she thinks otherwhise. So to end this discussion I’m writing here.
- Who would you save between your cat and your worst enemy?
- What if it was between your cat and a stranger?
- Why?
I would save my cat every time. I don’t value human life above her life. She’s been there for me for the past 15 years and helped me through the darkest times.
Yeah, my kitties got me through the pan. I lived alone and wasn’t in a relationship and had no car at the time. The isolation was extreme.
That’s so cute, I can’t. Thanks for paying your taxes on time.
I don’t blame you.
Took me a moment to realize the dark mark on her face wasn’t her hind paw.
She’s a Siamese chocolate point. In Siamese cats, there is a mutation for the genes of an enzyme (Tyrosinase) that inhibits the production of melanin above a certain temperature. Where the body temperature is lower (extremities, airways), that enzyme is deactivated and melanin is produced, allowing the fur to darken.
Siamese kitten are born completely white, as their temperature is kept high everywhere in the womb, and rapidly start to color after birth.
This is so interesting! Thanks for the cat fact!
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EDIT: If you need a serious #3 answer, one aspect is that my cat is dependent on me. That’s the relationship I accepted when I chose to take care of a domestic animal. My enemies, or strangers, are not my dependents. They are not vulnerable in that sense.
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I’m with you there. A couple winters ago I was a delivery person, I dropped a package on someone’s porch and I heard a little meow. Couple seconds later this little furball was climbing up my pant leg.
I knocked on the door to talk to the homeowner who said his mother had been hit by a car, and she had a cantankerous dog so she couldn’t take care of him. So I took him
I feel extremely responsible for my cat. He’s not like an “accessory” he’s something I made a commitment to saving and is dependent on me
I would save YOUR cat before my worst enemy, and I don’t even like cats. Is that bad?
I dislike the belief that human life is worth more than any other animal.
Even if we’re going to argue that, because of intellect or the ability to grasp out own existence or whatever arbitrary philosophical reason we’fe going to come up it, a human life is in general more valuable than that of a cats life, my “worst enemy” would have to be someone so morally corrupt that removing them from the world would make it a better place. This makes is a very pointless question.
A stranger is more of a real discussion. The stranger is enough of an unknown factor that I think I could assume that allowing them to die is likely to have a worse impact on the world, so it makes sense to save them. I certainly wouldn’t be able to say so with enough certainty to fault anyone for disagreeing with me, though.
I feel like the idea that an animal life is worth less than a human life is demonstrably true at a societal level though, right?
Like, we don’t sell human parts at a grocery store to eat, and I feel like people would call it a moral tragedy if we did.
If an animals life is equivalent to a humans, then meat is in fact murder, no?
Yes and no. For one, many vegetarians and vegans would agree, so on some level, sure, that’s a very defensible opinion. Secondly, North American sensibilities would call it a moral tragedy to sell cat or dog parts, so at some point we have to accept that what is and isn’t okay to kill and consume is a question of cultural bias as opposed to moral truth.
Lastly, you can accept the state of the food chain without holding the belief that those at the top of it are “better” or “worth more”. I don’t eat beef because I am, in some universal truth way, worth more than a cow. I eat beef because I accept that in the chaos of existence, this is where the chips fell. I do not feel a sense of superiority for being able to do so. If you’re going to get really strict about it, I’d define “murder” as the act of killing for the sake of killing, and say that killing for consumption and in some cases survival is different. But even then, I recognize that this is bias. If you want to call murder the act of taking a life, I’ve murdered a lot in my life, and I don’t intend on stopping any time soon. Mosquitos won’t squish themselves.
The question of intellect and understanding and the weight of these qualities in the value of a life is a dangerous road to wander down, so I like to keep in perspective that we’re all meaningless specks in the grand scheme of the universe. Otherwise, the questions get even more challenging: to say a truly reprehensible thing, what happens when we replace the human or the animal in question with an exceptionally low functioning human being? Do we now say their life has little value because they can’t contribute to society, they can’t understand the state of their own existence, and in many cases they’re not even capable of verbal communication? Does it become okay to choose to let them die, as in the original question? Are they suddenly fit for consumption as cattle? Or does the responsibility fall on the more capable to protect them?
Appraising and tiering life is an incredibly dangerous road to go down. You can choose any example of historical racism to see just how dangerous it gets. Life is life, and the strange differences between what’s “okay” and what’s not is luck more than anything else. Even as I consume a steak while my dog begs for the scraps, I believe it’s important to keep an understanding of how we got here, else hubris allows us to justify basically any atrocity.
Question: why does my life has more value than my cats? We both think, we both feel. We both have people who love us.
Is mine more valuable because I have a longer lifespan? Are children with terminal cancer less valuable?
Is mine worth more because I’m self aware? I’m pretty sure some cats have shown self awareness with the mirror test.
Sure, I may be smarter. But, does that make me intrinsically more valuable? Why?
Well, to play devil’s advocate - and species eating it’s own on the regular would be a failure - but much more so for one whose primary strength is working together.
Kind of curious who your enemies are, OP.
The ones I haven’t met personally are causing the deaths of millions of people.
The ones I have met personally are rapists and child abusers.
Would you save those kinds of people instead of saving a cat to whom you have a duty of care?
Got you one better, where tf do you meet these people? I know there are a bunch of em’, but I’m not in these circles and don’t plan to be, thus I don’t know any.
They are not in special “circles” - they are unfortunately distributed through society. You’ve probably met a couple without realizing.
The only ways of knowing who they are is if you are either told about them by their victims, or are victimized yourself; or if they are convicted of their crimes.
Not OP, but how I know someone so despicable:
He was 30 when he raped my 13 year old best friend and when he got out of prison, continued dating her piece of shit mom instead of fucking off. I’d sooner throw him into a burning building than save him from one.
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My favorite thing about this post is that question 2 is asked based on the assumption that you’ve answered question 1 correctly by picking “cat”.
My cat and it’s not a hard decision
I don’t even love cats and I’d still save your sister’s cat over my worse enemy!!! LOL
I have no enemies
- My thrift store dollar bin reject rescue cats without a moment’s hesitation
- Cats
- I promised my cats I would care for them all their days
Cat
There’s about 8 billion Humans, and about half of them suck more than any friendly domestic animal. The worst? I’d create an emergency.
More than half in my experience. I get to save my cat and make the world a better place for 1 and also 2 statistically
my worse enemy is the father of my friend who abused her when she was a kid, and watched CP, i don’t know him, i don’t want to know him, and if i had the chance to let him die in front of me, i wouldn’t hesitate to let it happen, and make earth a better place
Yes, saving a cat is a nice bonus.
true
My cats are my family, so they have priority over most humans. This would only be a tough situation if it were between my cats and my best friend because I consider her to be family too. But, in that case, I would say screw the “you can only save one” mentality, I’d become like a mom who can lift a car off her baby, and somehow save them all.
