why is hurting animals bad?

[JellyMaggot]

I hate animal abuse and I hate animal abuse videos, but of course this being the internet I'm going to come across a video or article about some depraved zoosadist every now and again. I want to have a justification for why the other person is in the wrong, but I have no reason beyond "hurting animals is bad and it makes me feel bad." I also have this stupid sliver of hope that if animal abusers were given a logical reason to not hurt animals, they might reconsider what they're doing. It's an odd topic, though, because animals themselves have a different understanding of morality than we do (maybe none at all), and it is part of the normal function of nature for animals to get hurt and killed for another's survival. But is there any way to make people not want to needlessly hurt animals? How can someone be made to understand that inflicting suffering is wrong?

 

[Colon capital V]

If you kill an animal for the sake of consumption, it's nature's doing. If you're harming an animal for the sake of your own enjoyment/pleasure, then you're fucking deranged and should know better to not be an animal with zero morals yourself.

 

[BBJ_4_Ever]

Most people are taught as children that deliberately hurting animals is wrong because they feel pain as we do. Those who do not assimilate those lessons have passed one of the first warning signs for a psychopath and may be a future serial killer. Therefore teaching people beyond early childhood, unless this animal abuse/neglect could be a side effect of needing medication, is almost impossible as it will recur.

 

[Matt Damon]

I want to have a justification for why the other person is in the wrong, but I have no reason beyond "hurting animals is bad and it makes me feel bad."

I think it's a pretty solid assumption that the suffering animals feel is at least somewhat comparable to our own. If we think our own suffering is inherently bad, the suffering of animals must also be inherently bad. All else being equal, minimization of suffering a good thing.

And if anyone asks you to justify why suffering is bad, just stab him in the eye with a pen and his retarded sophist ass will figure it out pretty quick.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

Obviously because it hurts the animal and you feel bad for hurting them. Even thinking about it makes me anxious.

 

[Ultrapenguin]

You can always go the opposite route: Animals' feelings aren't actually especially important because they are psychologically below humans (and human feelings aren't that important in the grand scheme either), ergo if someone considers an animal's feelings to be significant enough that they get off on hurting them then that's a sign that they themselves are mentally/emotionally on the level of an animal and therefore are sub-human.

There's no ultimate logical argument to be made though because that's an existential issue. At some point you just have to accept that you not liking it is all that matters, and focus more on other devices through which to make yourself and your positions more palatable.

It's a lesson that's more applicable than ever online: you don't have to be objectively correct, you just have to be someone people want to agree with.

 

[A Cardboard Box]

Anyone that needs it "explained" to them in a "reasonable and logical way" to try and "convince" them to not torture animals deserves to be lined up against the wall and shot, not lectured to.

 

[Vingle]

Because most animals are more likeable than most humans.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

Because most animals are more likeable than most humans.

Some animals have more personality than people.

 

[WelfareNiggerQueen]

Nobody likes a fag who gets rid of all the food.

Anyone that needs it "explained" to them in a "reasonable and logical way" to try and "convince" them to not torture animals deserves to be lined up against the wall and shot, not lectured to.

Um. That's anti science and anti semetic.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

Hurting animals is based and redpilled because animals fart and that causes global warming. Destroy all soynimals 2024.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Hurting animals is like knocking out a spastic in a wheel chair and then bragging about how you won a fist fight. It makes you look like a tosser while achieving nothing.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

Hurting animals is like knocking out a spastic in a wheel chair and then bragging about how you won a fist fight. It makes you look like a tosser while achieving nothing.

What if it's an animal that can kick your ass, like a bullfight?

 

[Fascist Frederick]

I wouldn't have an issue with a guy going out and beating up a bear with his bare hands. Or someone trying to fight a wild lion with a knife. If you want to punch up at something have at it. Or even punch level, I don't know, get into a fist fight with a kangaroo or something like that.

It's just wrong to hurt something that has no chance of defending itself against you.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

What if it's an animal that can kick your ass, like a bullfight?

Jump in the ring with Prime Tyson. If you come out the otherside you can brag and do what you want. Good luck though.

 

[Spiny Rumples]

Going beyond one person's experience, it could be that the desire to nurture and protect non-human animals could have an evolitionary benefit. Maybe it makes people more kind to community members who aren't blood related, or better at raising work animals and livestock.

Talking about overarching social benefits doesn't make logical sense to an individual, though. In theory, any person could get added benefit from being the only one to break the social norms.

I think there's also a chance that people instinctively see a lot of things as human. Anthropomorphism. If people see a tiny monkey and it makes the baby or toddler recognition part of their brain light up, it stands to reason that someone willing to torture the monkey would be more likely willing to torture a child.

 

[A-Stump]

Empathy isn't something that you can teach others. You either have it or don't. Certain cultures lack it, largely. Asians seem to slamdunk on animals as a pasttime.

 

[Blobby's Murder Knife]

As someone that raises somewhat sentient animals to eat, you don't want them to suffer because you have empathy. You would not want someone to be as cruel and torturous as possible to you in your care and death. Why would you inflict it on anything else? I hate mosquitoes, but I will just smash them. I won't make some weird torture chamber for them so they can suffer as long as their miserable lives will allow.

 

[Local FloRida-man]

You're not going to get a perfect logical argument because basic moral stances like this rely on intuition, not reasoning. But the long short of it is that the way you behave, from how you treat other to how you treat your immediate environment, affects you somehow on a deep, spiritual level (or just moral if your non-religious). Torturing animals taints you, in a way that makes it easy for people to tell. The mechanics of it aren't clear cut, and they aren't even consistent, but the results very much are. It isn't about logic, or society, or emotions, or advantage. It just makes you evil bro.

If you want a real in depth analysis just read Crime and Punishment.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

If you hurt animals intentionally, you get the rope. That simple.