Speciesism
Walking down the street, I notice a dead rat. A mammal, like we are, actually.
The animal probably died when, early in the morning, a cleaning car drove over it while cleaning the street. These cars also go very close to bushes near the street, where rats often stay, and the sudden noise makes them jump to a painful death. The rat appears to have had a good life. It is pretty big, and its fur looks healthy.
People pass by with disgust. Shall I feel the same? Do I feel the same?
As usual, when I have a question to which I do not immediately feel I know a good answer, I try to change the point of view.
I am a mammal and have a certain biology, the ability to experience emotions and feelings, and the ability to feel pain and suffering. Sometimes a dead urban pigeon lies on the street too. These birds often die after being hit by normal cars. Rats are more intelligent than pigeons. No doubt about that.
Do I feel the same about a dead pigeon and a dead rat? Logically speaking, a rat is much closer to me. A rat should be more worthy of compassion because it is much closer to my kind. But what about other higher beings in our environment? What about a domestic dog? It is a pet for us, and we feel a lot for them. A dead dog on the street would cause, well, at least here in Central Europe, compassion among people passing by. If somebody cuts a dead dog in two halves without any reason, common people would protest because of compassion. Doing the same to a rat or a pigeon, people would not protest, or at least not out of compassion, but rather out of disgust or concern for hygiene.
What does a dog feel about a rat? Interspecies empathy exists. It is best known among apes and monkeys, but whales, for instance, can also show such behavior. Elephants can also feel this. I remember a scene on the telly where an elephant carefully made sure not to step on a tortoise and even moved it carefully to the side.
Back to the dead rat. We care much more about our pets. No doubt about it. A dead dolphin, which is a whale too, lying somewhere would also make people feel compassion, despite the fact that dolphins are not pets to us.
Our species is not consistent in regard to compassion and empathy. We are not even consistent about this among our own species. A dead, dirty, old homeless man does not cause even close to the same emotions as a dead woman lying somewhere nearby.
Ideally speaking, we should be much more consistent. There is a lot of room for improvement on this topic. Are we improving? The people or other beings who care are by far too few. Some people do not eat meat because of compassion, but on the other hand, the same kind of people could be ignorant about a dead rat on the street.
Is it bad or good, the way we are? The universe does not know the concepts of bad and good. It is our way of thinking, but within our own world that we make up in our minds, good could also mean favourable towards our own existence as a species. So, does a dead rat matter?
Yes, I believe it does. It is a belief and not knowledge. The more conflicts and inconsistencies we have, the more likely we are to break eventually because of them. This way of thinking is, on the one hand, selfish because it identifies the need to care for other beings for our own advantage, but on the other hand, it serves the purpose of more harmony among species on the only place in the universe where we actually know complex life exists: this planet.
I was just about to write “our planet”, but then I immediately realized it is not ours as humans. And this says a lot about us and how we are.