Section Insanity, Reality Check Committee

Not All Animals Are Equal, Either

What about insects, one might ask. Especially when a colony of insects infests one's home.

Vegans/ARs are in a desperate need of a list of which exactly animals are worthy enough to be included into their extended compassions.

"I include insects in my animal rights philosophy.

I believe that at least certain insects are also conscious. ... For this reason, I believe we should include insects in our sphere of compassion."

Most vegans/ARs don't go this far. After all, an animal's value drops sharply with the level of its differentness from humans. Some of them (dare I say, most) are quite happy to kill some of the more pesky insects, such as mosquitoes and flies, even though this is a blatant denial of the 'basic rights' of those animals.

But what about the 'pests'?

"There are non-lethal methods for removing insects. Many of these methods simply involve using common household products, such as dish washing fluid. The smell from the chemicals in these products does not harm the insects, but causes them to leave our homes."

One topic this site conspicuously avoids is the topic of mammal 'pests'. From my experience, I know that vegans/ARs mostly have no problem with killing 'pests' such as rats, mice, other species' of rodents, various insect species', etc. They justify that particular view by reasoning that those 'pests' present a threat to us (so, humans do come first, after all), even when that is not strictly true.

Their view of what a 'pest' is requires looking at, too. While they're perfectly happy, even supportive, of killing of rats which happily live on our garbage and mostly out of our sight, they consider the extermination of introduced hedgehogs which threaten the survival of the rare bird species on an island to be evil. In this case, as in the paragraph quoted above, they favor relocation.

This demonstrates additional flaws in the vegan/AR way of thinking. The obvious one, of course, is that they don't really think all the animals deserve the 'basic rights', even if they feel "pain and suffering, happiness, joy and sorrow, and a desire to live." The less obvious one is the result of their general ignorance.

Animals, and all other living beings, don't live in a vacuum. You can't relocate an animal without consequences. Space in this world tends to be taken, and the new-come competition isn't welcome. When two beings are competing for a place which is already taken, one of them gets it, and the other has to go; dies, doesn't get a mate, goes hungry, something along those lines. It is usually the new-comer. So, re-location doesn't really achieve anything, except soothing the vegan/AR conscience. But that is, after all, the entire point of this particular form of reality denial.

posted by Leo @ 21:00