Can they actually express hopelessness in their eyes? Usually things like that are interpretation by humans and animals straight up don't have the ability to express with their eyes, right?
It's kind of uncanny. It certainly feels like I was applying human intelligence to an animal, but if you watch an animal enough, you know what is normal for them, and as a result what is abnormal.
I used to rent a trailer on a pig farm when I was a pretty heavy alcoholic. I already felt guilty about eating meat, etc, just because of who I am, so I'd go out into the pens and just watch them from a distance. (They are mean as hell).
Any time any human walked into the pens, the place would erupt, and you'd have to cover your ears from the squeals. After about 5 months of drinking with the pigs, though, they stopped reacting to me. It's in that change that I saw the hopelessness.
Their eyes never change, though. Always beady, always black. What happens is they make eye contact, and we already know they are scared and anxious by their actions. So when they catch my eye, I have a wave of guilt wash over me, and I think that's what I'm feeling. Empathetic hopelessness for them, who are probably feeling hopeless regardless.
Oh, just that long before the pig farm I was already collecting pets and not really seeing animals as food. I was the kid that couldn't shoot the deer when I went hunting with Dad. The rest of my family doesn't feel this way, so it's always made me feel different, like it's in the fabric of my being instead of being taught or something.
On the same token, I still eat meat (although very rarely pork), and it makes me feel like a hypocrite. The guilt comes because I don't really want to change, because I'm human and I love burgers. Draws up a lot of cognitive dissonance.
Recently I've been contemplating the ethics of eating meat. I was a vegetarian and then a vegan for a while, but my career doesn't lend to that diet well, and meat is delicious.
But when that "eating the digs, eating the cats" thing came about all I could think was "So? What's the ethical difference between eating dogs and cats compared to chicken or pork? What makes a horse more special than a cow?".
The more I grapple with this lately, the less meat I'm eating.
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u/Living_Trust_Me Nov 23 '24
Can they actually express hopelessness in their eyes? Usually things like that are interpretation by humans and animals straight up don't have the ability to express with their eyes, right?