• MobileTechGuy@lemmy.mlOP
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    1 year ago

    I hear you.

    Counterpoint: animals may very well have thoughts on this, but we will likely never know because there is not a common ground for exchanging thoughts between [an overwhelming majority] of species.

    I can’t quantify the number of times I’ve seen animals hunt others out of what amounts to an observed potential of either instinct or boredom: it may seem contrite, but domesticated cats hunting mice. They will play with mice, toy with them when the mice are clearly half-dead, and stop playing with them out of boredom when the mice can no longer move. Almost for sport. This is an observed behaviour that may be a byproduct of their domestication, but it gives credence to the fact that its not all for survival.

    I’m not justifying the hunting of animals for profit; I am in the camp of thought that its a horrible practice. The same goes for hunting endangered animals. However, to hunt animals for food is not an unjust practice. That’s how we homo sapiens get a good amount of protein (though I do concede that there are also plenty of other ways to do so). It is historically encoded into human existence.

    • TimeNaan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      AFAIK cats cats play with their prey not for fun but in order to tire it out.

      I think that cruelty and sadism are human inventions and we inflict them on animals on an industrial scale. I believe this comes from hierarchy and domination present in our society, not from instinct.

      • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Don’t read up on dolphins or seals then. Cruelty and sadism exist in other animals. Humans are just better at it.

        I mean lions don’t have an instinct to control and dominate a herd… Wait.

        And cats very often don’t eat their prey, they like humans lol for the “fun”…