Didn't mean to lie. I thought it followed from context (I see now it didn't) that I mean that most people do not care about the killing of different animals as much.
Outside of like farm animals, I think it's unlikely that most people are just okay with all but one animal being killed. I know I'm not okay with it, and I'm hardly special. I also know I'm not remotely in the position to do anything meaningful about it, and I suspect that is the case for most people. Perhaps you're confusing inaction with apathy.
Not talking about the artificially created species, that's a separate issue. More things like overfishing. And hunting of other species that are endangered but not as cute and lovable.
Overfishing is horrific, but people get up-in-arms about whales because cetaceans are basically people. Think of the dumbest human you know: they’re about as smart as a typical whale.
Octopuses are much smarter and people eat those too.
Edit: can I just correct myself. I now think we shouldn't use perceived intelligence as a measure of how much ethical consideration someone or something deserves, that gets reeeeally gross really fast
Yet there's no posts in my news feed about how they're being fished, let alone comments from people upset about it. Maybe we should care more about all animals?
We are all animals. Generally, the more cognitively sophisticated the animal, the more it can suffer, but suffering is always bad, which is why we should care about all fellow creatures. That said, the concerns of a mouse must be outweighed by the concerns of a whale.
Yes, it's actually quite simple to answer your simple question because there are so many simple reasons that are simple to understand.
People also care more about eating dogs than other animals. Similar thing here with whales acting more human-like than animals we eat.
Every species of whale is at risk of becoming endangered or extinct. Nearly every other animal that humans are OK with killing aren't in this much danger. Nearly every animal that is endangered gets people to care more about killing them than other animals.
Whales are giant, peaceful creatures (outside of some orcas that are just dicks). People like large animals, like tigers and bears and elephants, but this is a large thing that is also harmless.
Whales are intelligent and show signs of culture, society, memory, and strong feelings.
Man Id like to say some things in response of youd have acted like you're open for a normal adult discussion, but I just can't deal with this level of condescension. Please be nicer to people who did nothing to hurt you
I responded that way because you were "just asking questions." It was a gotcha question that you either already knew the answer to (which is why I answered the way I did, because how could a person not know those answers?), or wouldn't believe the answer to even if it was explained simply and rationally.
I was trying to open a discussion and maybe get a person or two to get to question some things. Don't think that's a good reason to be mean. And fwiw I still don't understand WHY a person cares more about a dog than a pig.