Why is it normal to kill a pig, but not a human/a stray dog?

How would you explain to a child why it's okay to kill a pig but not a human or a stray dog?

I’ve never felt bad about eating meat and that hasn't changed, yet I can't find any explanation that would make sense to me and I can’t stop thinking about it. I honestly have no idea what I would say.

(Changed the question from eating to kiling because that was originally what I had in mind)



Answer:


I’m appalled by the amount of answers stating that there is no difference between killing a human and a pig.

So do you really (really) think the same punishment should apply to a driver that ran over a dog than to one that ran over a human?

You really couldn’t explain your child why spraying insecticide on a cockroach nest and using chemical weapons on a village are very different things?

You really couldn’t explain your child why it’s OK to cut down a tree to make furniture (leaving several birds homeless for a while and possibly killing several others) and it’s not OK to demolish your neighbor’s house because you need its raw materials?

The reason it’s worse to kill a human being than to kill an animal of another species is that instinctively it “feels” that way, and that should be enough of an answer - you should generally trust your moral instincts.

The ultimate reason is evolution: you share way more genes with another human than with a pig. Killing a human would prevent those genes from passing on to the next generation, and would thus hinder the survival of those genes. That’s also the reason why you (and after a fashion most mammals, as far as I know) care more for a close relative than for a stranger.

But that ultimate reason doesn’t really matter: people have known that it’s OK to kill a pig but not a human way before the mechanism of evolution was discovered. It feels that way, and for good reason.


Source: https://www.quora.com/How-would-you-...or-a-stray-dog

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