Your Positions

• We should use animals however we like, as long as we aren’t just hurting them for no reason. Humans are superior! (Start Over)

Things to Consider

Is it really true that humans are superior to other animals? In what sense, exactly? If you were locked in a cage with a lion and your bare hands, you’re sure you would win right? But it’s not just physical strength that animals can often best humans in. Chimpanzees outperform humans in numerical working memory tests. Bats can perceive complex shapes through sound in a way humans cannot: our brains simply lack the appropriate wiring to do this complex cognitive task (our ears are just fine). Woodpeckers outperform all but the most mathematically trained humans in various kind of statistical inference. Pigeons can outperform humans at fast-paced multi-tasking. Rats outperform humans in what are known as “implicit category-based generalization tasks”. The fact of the matter is that when we try to measure “superiority” we are biased in what features we choose to look for.

Humans are superior mostly in the way that kings are superior to peasants: they have power over them. But might doesn’t make right.

In any case, what kind of ruler would you imagine yourself to be? If you could get away with it, would you be using your power to kill people you don’t like? Would you be using peasants as human footstools, and taking concubines? Or would you use your power to make the world a better place?

The fact of the matter is that using animals is not necessary to be be healthy and happy. Using them in ways that hurt them is pretty much “hurting them for no good reason”, in the same way using a peasant as a footstool is hurting them for no good reason. Sure, you get a nice footstool to rest your feet on which feels nice, but there is a reasonable alternative: a regular footstool. Of course, the king might argue that a human footstool feels better, it’s nice and warm and soft in a way that a regular footstool can’t be. But do you think, objectively, the trade-off the king is making between his own comfort and the comfort of the peasant is just and fair? Or is the king abusing his power for his own pleasure at the expense of others?