Should we treat cetaceans, great apes and elephants as if they're sentient?
We don't know yet if they are, or even what that means but evidence seems to indicate they're different from other animals. They're smarter and perhaps more aware. Is it the safest bet ethically for us to stop hunting them and try to communicate, if such a thing were possible?
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They're not sentient, stupid. They don't have the capacity for self-reflection. Well neither do RepubliKKKans but that's beside the point.
>sentient
They are sentient.
You mean sapient.
They may be closer. You care more about them, because you can identify more with them.
As knowledge of their behavior becomes more widespread and people become more empathetic you can expect more people to try to protect them.
As it is, most people that hunt these animals don't really know or care. Often they can't afford to care, as they derive much of their livelihood from hunting or otherwise exploiting these creatures for entertainment.
Is it ethical to alter the genetics of these and maybe other animals to make them hyper-intelligent and definitely sapient?
Is it ethical to medically alter a person with Down Syndrome or similar and make him aware of his condition, or should we let them live in that peaceful bliss?
I say leave them alone. That level of awareness isn't the gift you might think it is.
Do it to a generation and see what happens. Who cares about ethics?
>implying I care about the animal's well being... I just want real life furries
Modifying other creatures because "I want" is not ethical. You'd need to substantiate it somehow with some consideration you're helping them or somehow "bettering" them for their own sake. Remember the question is ethic, not "how Veeky Forums denizen 876,963 gets his jollies". I'm not even sure the latter could be categorized or defined.
They should have shot the two year old and his parents and fed the dumbasses to the gorilla. Nigger jokes aside, the gorilla was in the right to want to use the kiddy as a fleshlight. Damn humans, perpetuating natural selection while randomly getting in its way.
They are mutants, kill the mutant.
The evidence so far would suggest that they're intelligent enough for something like despair, and to me this seems like a good enough cause for them to be given firm legal protections.
Do I think they have an inalienable right to self-determination? No. Should an elephant poacher be tried for murder? Sure.
I can see why you'd take that stance, you're a dumbass who got spooked
>sentient
This just means "possesses senses". All animals are sentient, the word you're looking for is sapient.
You mean sapient but yes we should.
Elephants have funerals, are able to detect dialects and accents in human voices, and have been shown to not only self-identify with the mirror test, but they are also able to differentiate between young humans from old humans.
Most cetaceans are dumb as shit, but dolphins and orcas have been shown to have great intelligence. Just look up the pod of orcas near Vancouver who have been shown to communicate with dolphins and have their own mini-society interworking with them.
Great apes, definitely. Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimps, and Bonobos at the very least are some of the most sapient beings on this planet.
>but they are also able to differentiate between young humans from old humans.
Is that really indicative of sapience? I mean, rabbits can tell the difference between different genres of music, but I wouldn't use that to argue that they're sapient.
When a charging bull elephant can differentiate between a baby and treat it with care while acting like a dick to the adults, I'd argue that that's sapience.
They're not human so fuck them to be honest. We should enslave and hunt the shit outta sapient aliens if we find them too, to be honest.
We should treat them as a threat, to be honest. Now mankind is powerful and they're weak, but we don't know if this is gonna last forever. This animals who are so advanced could be our competence in the far future. We should extinguish them.
Edgy.
You're basically asking if we should treat them like they function like us. No, they aren't human.
>They don't have the capacity for self-reflection.
Literally wrong. LITERALLY.
They should be classified as non-human people and it should be illegal to capture them or harm them without cause.