this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
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Slave owners argued that their slaves received benefits, like a place to sleep and food. Such arguments are only convincing to those who benefit from exploiting the bodies of vulnerable individuals. These arguments exist not to convince others, but to alleviate moral conflict within the person giving the argument.
The truth is, neither slaves nor animals need an owner's help to live and thrive, all such can do is prevent their innate expressions and rob their autonomy. Virtually anyone here would sacrifice some food and sleep for the autonomy to choose their own mate, raise their own children, and choose the effect they have on the world.
The argument I have seen is that other animals share some needs with humans, but not all. All animals don't have the same social behavior, and so they don't have the same social needs. We know that humans have a perception of reality different from any other animal, like projecting oneself far into the future etc. I think it's not far-fetch that all beings don't share the same physical, psychological, and social needs.
I'd like to emphasize that humans wouldn't have more needs than other animals, just different ones.
So the question is: if the animals' needs are met, could they be happier if we gave them opportunities that satisfy human needs? Or is that projecting a human perception onto another being that's just different?
But the same argument was probably made by white people towards slaves: "they don't have the same needs than us". We know that slaves did have the same needs. Maybe something similar could happen with our perception of animals' needs?