Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
A cat makes no bug.
So then you'd agree that a cat feels pain, much like a human being does.
Where does that logic start to break down? Does a dog not feel pain? A chimpanzee? Of course they do. What about a rabbit or a guinea pig? Of course. A crocodile? Yes indeed. What allows them to feel pain? Their nervous system.

It's possible that certain animals have certain body parts which experience no pain. A sheep doesn't care if you shave off it's wool. If you trim the nails of a dog properly, it doesn't yelp in pain. So I am sure that bugs and whatnot could perhaps have antennae or legs that if you rip off, they may not feel it.

What if I conceded the entire pain question, since I am not an expert. Let's say you could do anything you want to a bug and it felt no pain. Does that make it any less cruel to attempt to torture the creature, any less cruel to destroy them senselessly? If hollywood makes a horror film where they release a bunch of tarantulas onto the ground in a room, is it ok for the actors to just stomp all over them and spread their guts across the floor? Is it ok to take one of these creatures and start plucking their legs off and leave them to starve? There are people who have a rare condition which does not allow them to sense pain. Is it ok to injure them because it doesn't cause them to suffer the pain? Pain is only one part of the cruelty. What about the unnecessary injury or death of a creature?

Maybe it goes a step too far to say ok, don't ever eat an animal and don't ever accidentally step on a bug and don't get rid of pests inside your house. That's nature. What's unnatural is the fascination with senseless cruelty and destruction.

Call me a bleeding heart, maybe I am, but imagine we didn't need trees for oxygen or resources. Shouldn't it be a crime for someone to enter a forest and just start burning down all the trees? Or cutting them all down and destroying the natural environment just for the bizarre thrill of destroying things? I get that we cut down trees for wood and paper and so forth, or to clear an area for development... but these are things which serve a purpose. Destruction of living things without any reason still seems pointless and cruel to me.

Yeah, I am aware that such ideas are easy to mock, but the ideas in my opinion show a lot more concern for society, life in general, and the environment, and the view that you can maim or destroy living things frivolously just seems to be an absolute moral negative to me. Wasteful and senseless destruction, especially when it ends a life, especially when it causes torment and pain, is wrong.

I'd say it is at the very core of the issue. If most anmials can feel pain like humans do, then one would expect that this would have a major impact. I feel no regret kicking the flower head of a dandelion.
Nor I.... but I also don't for example take a bunch of herbicide and just sprinkle it all over the place for the fun of vandalizing property or destroying nature. There's no pain whatsoever involved, and it still seems wrong to me. It's a strange example but... most people have the good sense not to destroy things for no reason, especially living things, especially ones that feel pain. And if I cannot articulate why I think there is a universal moral and logical basis for this viewpoint, then it is because I'm not someone who grapples with moral truths for a living or even to any great extent as a hobby, but I still think there's something to it that gives it more value than reasonless killing of animals or cruel treatment thereof.