General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A man in PA shoots 2 family dogs who wander onto his sheep farm [View all]Xithras
(16,191 posts)What makes a dogs life more valuable than a sheep's life? Why do you think that a sheep should have to suffer being brutally ripped apart by another animal, while the dog doing the ripping should be spared?
Ultimately the lives of all animals are equal in value. We humans, as their owners, assign them relative "values". If the owner of the sheep considered them to be more "valuable" than the dog, why should the dog owners opinions get to trump his?
Let me switch this up. Your dog is being attacked by another more vicious dog on your front porch. You have an axe in your hand and can kill the attacking dog with it. If you swing it, the viscous dog dies and your dog survives. If you don't, the viscous dog lives, and your dog gets mauled to death. What would you do? Which animal is more worthy of being saved? Why?
That's the decision that farmers and ranchers face when their animals are being attacked. One of the animals is going to die, and they're simply making sure that it isn't theirs.