Is killing animals wrong? That depends on what ‘wrong’ is…
First, though, let me let you in on a (not very well kept) secret.
Killing things, be they insects, rabbits, dolphins, puppies, or other human beings, is fun. Yes, that’s right, killing defenseless animals (including the cute ones) and other people (irregardless of gender, age, or other social taboo) is incredibly enjoyable – by which I mean that it fills the killer with a wonderful sense of power, control, and general well-being. The rush of continuing life is the purest sensation of elation any organism whose most basic instinct is to ‘stay alive’ can ever experience. Like air, though, appreciation for life can only really be experienced in its absence; one easy way to ‘absent’ life, and so appreciate your own, is to kill something else.
Given that killing is fun, then why is most killing considered ‘wrong’? The answer is that man is a social creature; modern societies have advanced to the point that most killing has a net detrimental effect. Without a society to judge, there would be no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’; the concept of morality makes absolutely no sense in the absence of a collective. For example, the killing of a little baby is considered ‘wrong’, for many reasons, but one powerful one is that it diminishes the collective’s ability to fulfill their need to breed and continue life (that’s why you save the women and children first – the breeders and the bred are the most valuable members of a survival-driven collective.)
Without turning this into a 20-page essay, the answer is that killing animals is neither wrong nor right in the absolute (as almost nothing is, or even can be); its morality depends upon its effect on your society as a whole. Is killing a "cute widdle fwuffy bunny-wabbit" wrong? You betcha; by describing the rabbit in that fashion, you give it inherent positive value to your society. Is killing an overgrown rodent that is destroying your garden wrong? Nope – that action results in a net positive for your society, and so is ‘right’.
Put in the briefest possible way, if an action increases your chances of successfully breeding, it is ‘right’, if it decreases said chances, it is ‘wrong’, and if it has no effect either way, it is not a moral subject.
So, to answer the original question with another: will shooting said rabbit help you get laid?
@Calandale:
WTF
is with
your tiny
little lines?
Reading your
posts is
like trying
to read
really bad
poetry.