this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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Chapotraphouse
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I don't think this is the take. You're essentially saying that we should undo eugenics by doing more eugenics.
My take is that humanity, through its past actions, now has a responsibility to care for the species that it curated to live alongside itself. Cats dogs cows chickens pigs all that shit. We can and should move towards a society that doesn't eat or abuse these animals, but they are fully evolved for living within and alongside humans in their day to day lives and we shouldn't just let them go extinct any more than we should just let any other species go extinct, and the best way to provide for them an environment for them to flourish in is to continue letting them live alongside us in our day to day lives.
I am vegan. I have been a vegan for over a quarter of a century now. I also have a cat. There was of course breeding of his ancestors for exploitational purposes, but there was also co-evolution that benefited both species. Regardless, my relationship with him is not one based on exploitation but on genuine mutual companionship. Our relationship is mutually beneficial on a number of levels. I am confident in saying that I not only allow him to live an enjoyable, self-actualized cat life, but that I also at times bring him joy. And he certainly brings me joy. I respect him as an individual being with his own wants and desires and do my best to fulfill them. I know of plenty of other humans who have similarly mutually beneficial relationships with their nonhuman companions. This is not welfarism and it is no more exploitational than many human relationships where a power imbalance exists by necessity but is still one based on mutual caring. I think the welfarism argument also completely ignores the reality of co-evolution (as seen between many other species that don't involve humans at all). Humans and nonhuman domesticated companions can and frequently do exist in non exploitational harmony. There is no reason this should be at odds with veganism and no reason we need to move towards phasing out the domestic cat (or dogs, etc.) as a species in order to be morally, ethically, or ideologically consistent as vegans.
And for the record, I am not against phasing out certain species (allowing them to go extinct by not giving them the opportunity to breed while providing and caring for the individuals during the time they're still around) for those species that exist wholly for human exploitation. I am not opposed to the extinction of, for example, cattle on some anti-extinction principle. I just fundamentally disagree with the position that domesticated animals can't coexist with humans in a mutually loving and compassionate symbiosis, since clearly they can.