I am against suffering, specifically, my suffering. I've found my suffering to be caused by many and various events including the suffering of others.
But I've never been a rabbit (once described to me by my tech as Mother Nature's Big Mac because everything eats them.)
I don't know if they accept their fates with calm and grace.
I prefer to assume that a rabbit has some sense of self and a drive towards self preservation. Similarly, that injury would produce pain and suffering. Their outward behaviors; struggling when caught, crying out when injured support this.
I am against suffering.
I have a substantially different opinion about the classic demonstration of cruelty evidenced by a small boy pulling the wings off of a fly. I do not believe the fly is sufficiently complexly constructed to have a sense of self, self preservation and pain. So to me, a small boy pulling the wings off of a fly is an indication that he may be a psychopathic future danger but not cruelty to the fly. Or he may simply not have yet developed the empathy necessary to recognize suffering in others. I'd put this greyhound live baiting in the same categories: could be psychopathic, could be empathically stunted.
There has been a long and active debate over what conditions warrant the suffering of animals: from bear baiting, dog/cock/bull fighting to medical research. Generally, I see attitudes of human exceptionalism providing the alleged moral basis for doing whatever we damn well feel like to anything not human. e.g. methodically breaking the backs of rats to see if stem cell transplants can induce regrowth of neural tissue. At least responsible research institutions have ethics committees to curb excesses. Still, I hope the white mice don't hold war crimes trials in the afterlife. I don't want to have to plead my case to Frankie and Benjy.
But I've never been a rabbit (once described to me by my tech as Mother Nature's Big Mac because everything eats them.)
I don't know if they accept their fates with calm and grace.
I prefer to assume that a rabbit has some sense of self and a drive towards self preservation. Similarly, that injury would produce pain and suffering. Their outward behaviors; struggling when caught, crying out when injured support this.
I am against suffering.
I have a substantially different opinion about the classic demonstration of cruelty evidenced by a small boy pulling the wings off of a fly. I do not believe the fly is sufficiently complexly constructed to have a sense of self, self preservation and pain. So to me, a small boy pulling the wings off of a fly is an indication that he may be a psychopathic future danger but not cruelty to the fly. Or he may simply not have yet developed the empathy necessary to recognize suffering in others. I'd put this greyhound live baiting in the same categories: could be psychopathic, could be empathically stunted.
There has been a long and active debate over what conditions warrant the suffering of animals: from bear baiting, dog/cock/bull fighting to medical research. Generally, I see attitudes of human exceptionalism providing the alleged moral basis for doing whatever we damn well feel like to anything not human. e.g. methodically breaking the backs of rats to see if stem cell transplants can induce regrowth of neural tissue. At least responsible research institutions have ethics committees to curb excesses. Still, I hope the white mice don't hold war crimes trials in the afterlife. I don't want to have to plead my case to Frankie and Benjy.
So how, exactly, does God know that She's NOT a brain in a vat? 
