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Comment by bollihoo6622 | Hacker News Reader

Call me eccentric, but intentionally killing a dog is as bad as killing a person.

Arbitrary (and inconsistent) moral standards. I can’t wrap my head around how the same people who think killing dogs is bad are fine with eating meat from pigs and cows. How do you draw a line? Dogs are more intelligent? Dogs are better pets? Dogs are more fun and loyal?

Objectively, none of this is probably true (except the last).

I don’t think the problem is with the killing of the dog. The problem is with the killing of a pet.

Yeah. It's pretty common for people to regard their pets as members of their family.

The poster you responded to (or should I say ranted at) told you nothing about their beliefs in regards to other animals.

If you kill a cow belonging to a rancher, I think they are going to object, and it's not because they think eating beef is wrong.

Every moral standard is arbitrary if you don't recognize the distinctions being made.

I would agree that someone who intentionally killed a dog and doesn't regret it is a terrible person, but I still think you'd be a terrible person if you subject them to death.

I think so too. At the same time I think I can emphatize with a person that does.

At what point does killing an animal not really matter? For example, we squash bugs and don't feel bad about it but killing a dog is frowned upon.

This is not a gotcha, I'm genuinely curious.

At least part of it, though definitely not all of it, is that a pet dog is immeasurably valuable to its owner.

Valuable in what sense?

It is interesting to watch dogs being treated like humans, almost like children and that sense of care does not extend to very human neighbours.

I don't get it. Probably because its a cultural thing. Anecdotally, where I am from a dog is a dog and will never get more attention than a person. It's not allowed in the house because that's where people live and if you feel lonely you call up a friend or sibling - not cuddle a dog.

One might get the impression that some cultures place more value in a dog than a person, which is bizzare since it is just an animal.

Western European culture has long placed a lot of value on dogs. The over embrace of dogs over humans recently though as you’re describing, is a sign of our societal collapse. People have gone absolutely bananas over animals and pets in general over the past 20 years. It’s the social upheaval and economic squeezing of the lemons. People are tense and always in fear and panic. So if you’re not very religious, you may find your non-human comforts in your pets. Especially because everyone else around you is also in constant fear and panic. It really started around here on 9/11. And it’s just a constant ramping up ever since.

> The over embrace of dogs over humans recently though as you’re describing, is a sign of our societal collapse

I think you've summed up ,quite succintly, my suspicions about western hegemony. The west is like the Empire in Asimovs Foundation trilogy. Wveryone is too busy looking at their phones to realise everything around them is crumbling.

It's not necessarily cultural, for some people dogs/pets are a substitute for human company and are held in higher esteem, since they don't have some of the negative behaviors humans do (such as dishonesty, etc)

> Valuable in what sense?

Unconditional love is valuable for humans.

Wolves have also a huge positive impact in our economy. If we exclude the humans, the wolf is the animal that had saved more human lives in the history, so is in a special category. Dogs and wolves belong to the same species.

> If we exclude the humans, the wolf is the animal that had saved more human lives in the history

Would you mind elaborating on this point? In what way has the wolf saved uncountable human lives? I've only ever seen it portrayed as a human and livestock predator.

EDIT: I've been reading up on the matter. Historically, the wolf has been associated with disease control, as they tend to remove the weakest, sickest members of a given herd from the genetic pool.

So meat is murder?

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