While I don't condone free kills either, let's not idealize animals.
I wish I could find the article that dispelled myths about animals (where you among other things learn that dolphins and sea otters have rapists amongst their ranks).
Sorry, but no. Leopards are not mindless eating machines that can be treated like evil robots with one intent. They have complex lives think about things, and feel pity, if limited. They are scrappy fighters getting pushed to the brink by human encroachment. They have shard minds and are shrewd when necessary. When they're gone, the world will have lost something seriously majestic--majestic in terms of millions of years of evolution and another branch of the tree of life sawed off. There will be only one reason that leopards go extinct, and that's us. They are consummate hunters, and they'll eat anything because they have to.
> dispelled myths about animals (where you among other things learn that dolphins and sea otters have rapists amongst their ranks).
If anything, the myth is that animals are simple, don't have issues, and don't live complex lives. Squirrel #57 is not the same as squirrel #43. That should make us want to stamp out their existence even less.
However maybe they could be domesticated over long time.
If we take it as a given that animals have no morality, or at least different morality than our own, surely it's incumbent upon us to act accordingly among them.
Incidentally: while backpacking on Isle Royale, which has a robust wolf/moose ecosystem I asked a ranger why the wolves didn't just eat the plentiful, slow, weak humans instead of the moose. The ranger said humans aren't tasty to wolves.
If you look at human history, they have mostly done that by eliminating predatory megafauna. There used to be lions in the Middle East and Europe.
> The ranger said humans aren't tasty to wolves.
I'm pretty sure it's BS. I'd bet more on wolves being afraid of humans (which is a good survival trait! Here in western Europe they have been hunted to extinction).
I saw a YT video where a woman is recording a wolf that didn't see her. When it realize she's there, the wolf is startled and runs away.
Toss a deer leg in the pen and they run for the back fence.
Not all though. Some of the “lower ranked” ones realized what was happening and took the opportunity to grab food they usually would have to wait for.
Some animals attack out of defense as well, as in this case.
> let's not idealize animals
Acknowledging that most animals have consciousness, emotions, language, etc. isn't idealizing them, it's just an accurate observation. This is opposed to treating animals like trophies or non-sentient creatures.
> where you among other things learn that dolphins and sea otters have rapists amongst their ranks
As do humans.
No one said animals are better or more virtuous than humans. OP's point is that it's not OK to go into nature and randomly shoot at animals for fun, entertainment, etc.
Ok, so some I could see (elephants, dolphins, etc), but if it's most I'm gonna need a source on that.
Almost every animal needs to be able to communicate with their own species either through cooperation, competition or finding a mate.
All mammals I know of (and I think by definition) nurse and care for their young. That means there’s some form of communication between the parents and the child.
And for emotions, it’s easy to see in domesticated cats and dogs, as well as wild primates. Fear, jealousy, anger, affection, etc. But it’s also been documented in many other species as well.
Here’s some more info:
https://online.uwa.edu/news/empathy-in-animals/
> We know that fish are conscious and sentient, rats, mice and chickens display empathy and feel not only their own pain but also that of other individuals
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_kind_of_e...
> Even rodents, once thought to be unaffected by emotions and devoid of facial expressions, have been found to “express anguish through narrowed eyes, flattened ears, and swollen cheeks.” They also have facial expressions for pleasure, and they recognize these states in other rats. As for horses, De Waal notes that their faces are “about as expressive as those of the primates.”
I can have pity on a baby, or a tree, and help preserve it, even if it doesn't have the capability to pity or perform a similar task for me.