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?
Gonna change your question to “dog”, as that’s what I have
- I would choose basically any other life over my worst enemy’s. In a choice between them and no one, I’d save no one. I feel you don’t understand how emnity works.
- Better question, dog,
- because he’s a member of my family that I’m responsible for. As annoying as his theivery is and as bad as his farts are, he’s my friend. Would you choose a stranger over one of your friends?
- Cat
- Cat
- Cat
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 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.
Took me a moment to realize the dark mark on her face wasn’t her hind paw.
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?
My cat and it’s not a hard decision
Who is more likely to be able to save themselves? Like, if it’s a fire I’m getting the people out, the cats will get themselves out. If someone is getting pushed off a 3 story building? The cat, more likely to survive.
Water rising? I am grabbing the cat, the person can figure out something for themselves.
I would save YOUR cat before my worst enemy, and I don’t even like cats. Is that bad?
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.
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.
It’s a moral dilemma between a life and a life, one is not lesser than the other regardless of whether one is human or not, so the issue then becomes which one is more valuable.
But valuable to whom?
Society? I may think my worst enemy is a bastard but they’re likely to be a productive member of society.
But valuable to me personally? I’m picking my cat every single time, it’s like asking to pick between your worst enemy and your child, it doesn’t even require weighing the options.I have no enemies
I don’t even love cats and I’d still save your sister’s cat over my worse enemy!!! LOL
My cats are extremely cute and my enemies are extremely bad people.
- Cat
- Cat
- Cat
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?
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?
Society will make all sorts of fucked up (and some not-so-fucked up) decisions about what’s acceptable and what’s not, “true” is not the right word here.
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.
Selling cat parts would be seen as a moral tragedy too, at least in my society.
If an animals life is equivalent to a humans, then meat is in fact murder, no?
Life eats life, an organism that kills for biological need isn’t a murderer (though our diet + modern factory farming system arguably is). Killing a conscious being of any species unnecessarily can be considered murder I’d say. If there was an animal that (still existed anyways) evolved to eat humans, it would not be murder for it to eat.
Ultimately, humans are not inherently more entitled to anything, including life, more than any other species, though society is likely to disagree.
I’d choose
1 - cat
2 -
humancat3 - because the fallout from the human death will be more than from the cat, and could itself include a pet death or cat in a cage for years (people tend to not care much about a deceased person’s cat).3 - I’m changing my answer after reading a few others. They’re right, I am responsible for my cats, they are my family and I promised to care for them.
I feel like you’re taking a bit of a dissonant position here, no?
If it would be a moral tragedy to kill a cat and eat it, why is that not true for a cow? If life eats life, it’s not murder for me to kill and eat the cat, correct? So why is it a moral evil if killing and eating the cow is not?
I think you’re saying that this is just one of the “fucked up” stances that society has taken? But then why participate in it?
I’m fine with either answer. Either “eating meat is fine because animal life is less valuable than people’s dietary needs/preferences,” or “vegetarianism is the only moral option, as all life is equally valuable,” but it seems to me like any answer in the middle is hypocrisy, no?
