Thread:SweetSquidTea/@comment-31790818-20200529235203/@comment-31790818-20200530002834

SweetSquidTea wrote: They don't have a life. Sure, they are living and they have life, but not a life. A life would be their sentience and humans have that, meaning we can make our own decisions. We are supposed to rule over the earth and rule it well, so I think as long as you aren't over hunting then it is fine to hunt a bit. What you mean by "they don't have a life?" Take dolphins. Mammals that can perceive their environment well and have a strong nervous system. They have high intelligence and can communicate with each other. If hurt, they will send off reactions of pain with similar hormones to humans to prove that they can feel suffering. I get that you aren't a dolphin, and thus cannot know for sure if they do or do not perceive pain the same way we do, although it's easy to assume they can.

There is one bit that catches my eye, though:

SweetSquidTea wrote: We are supposed to rule over the Earth and rule it well. I feel like Earth should not be ruled, especially since we never took any other animals into question. Again with the dolphins example, they do not have the physical abilities to make complex structures, but it can be assumed they could given their coordination and simple archictecture understanding. They also have a language in which we cannot translate since they probably have completely different understandings and words than us. They can be perceived as equals in the sense than an animal could have an equal because they have the understanding, albeit a bit less of one. We did not ask if they could rule the world, and we cannot ask if they can rule the world.

However, all ecosystems have impacts on each other and each lifeform does have an impact in their ecosystem, as each one is valuable to the overall functioning of the Earth as a whole. Each and every single one. If a genus were to go extinct, we would see an environmental extinction event. One lifeform ruling over all of it doesn't work. Throughout prehistory, we can prove that ecosystems cannot have one ruler to function, and need teamwork. We must work with this in the way we can.

Although we cannot say for sure whether or not they do have sentience, it really does seem like they do, and it would be best to play it safe, especially since hunting serves zero purpouse whatsoever.