• qyron
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    11 months ago

    Interesting question from a chicken.

    My concern is not morality and neither is that the issue here.

    The animals we call farm animals today came from what are considered prey animals and the process of domestication was essentialy a process of reducing fear and wariness towards our species.

    Dogs came to be from an apex predator that, we speculate, found advantageous to actively associate with our species for mutual benefit.

    Different origins produced different outcomes.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      I think there is a much easier explanation. People keep rabbits and guinea pigs as pets. They are much more of a “prey animal” than a wild hog, for example.

      Humans simply find rabbits, dogs and cats more aesthetically pleasing / cute. That’s the whole secret to it. Some animals are liked by humans and get a bare minimum of compassion and some don’t. And that’s the biggest factor in our decision of which animals deserve to rot away in their own filth until slaughtered and which can enter our homes as “entertainers”.

      • qyron
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        11 months ago

        Those two species got a “promotion” more recently into the realm of company animals but they started as food, due to being prolific and easy to keep. They are more sustainable as well, as a tangent comment.

        We can argue on all fronts. This is speculation, for what it is.