{"id":4640,"date":"2018-05-22T13:09:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T11:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/?p=4640"},"modified":"2018-05-22T14:08:34","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T12:08:34","slug":"who-would-you-save","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.illis.se\/en\/who-would-you-save\/","title":{"rendered":"Who would you save?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine that you could help one of these cats get a better life.<\/p>\n

You can only choose ONE.<\/p>\n

Who would it be?<\/p>\n

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You can only help ONE. Who would you choose?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

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ADA<\/strong> is The Champion, she’s the winner of several international cat beauty <\/span>competitions. She’s in perfect physical health, is neutered, gets nutritionally balanced food in a bowl, and all the vitamins and whatnots. She lives with a dog and a tail-pulling child and spends most of her time at home hiding under sofas when she’s not travelling to different exhibitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

BELLE<\/strong> is The Hostess. She greets guests with her tail high, and spends most of the time contentedly purring in her elderly owner’s lap. She never meets other cats, and is pampered with unhealthy food in a bowl, is severely overweight and has un-diagnosed diabetes.<\/p>\n

COCO<\/strong> is The Rogue. She lives in a barn with a group of related females. She hunts mice, and has babies, intestinal parasites and ticks. She gets chased by the farm dogs every few days – and has a life expectancy of about four years.<\/p>\n

Ignore your objection about irresponsible ownership, and let\u2019s assume cat overpopulation is not a problem, and that there are international cat beauty competitions for neutered cats. Imagine you can wave a magic wand and radically change the life circumstances of one of these cats.<\/p>\n

You can only help one. Who would you choose?\u00a0Make your choice below (click a name, and then “vote”, and see how you compare! Pick ONE of the cats as the one you’d help first.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Who would you help first?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Ada<\/span><\/div>\n
Belle<\/span><\/div>\n
Coco<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’re one of the first to participate in this vote, there may not be any reliable results yet. In a recent FB blog poll I did asking the same question, this was the outcome:<\/p>\n

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So, I’ve already asked this question as a short poll on my Facebook site (if you answered on Facebook, please answer again!). Two polls actually, on two different posts – that was probably confusing to many people, and only a fraction answered the second poll.<\/p>\n

But – the results were interesting enough to warrant further investigation – hence this blog post.<\/p>\n

The second poll was this:<\/p>\n

Imagine having a magic wand that works, not once, but twice.<\/p>\n

You can wave it twice only, and help TWO of those cats.<\/p>\n

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You can only help two. Who would you leave as is?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Again, you have to choose: who would you leave as is?\u00a0 Who has “good enough” welfare?<\/p>\n

This may actually be more difficult than just choosing who’s suffering the most. Take a moment to actually answer the poll below. Pick one of the cats to be the ONE you wouldn’t help<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Who would you leave as is?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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<\/p>\n

Ada<\/span><\/div>\n
Belle<\/span><\/div>\n
Coco<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

These were the handful of answers I got when I did this poll on Facebook:<\/p>\n

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I thought these results were really interesting. Though the sample is small and probably biased, it seems most people who chose to answer these two polls on Facebook were conflicted about Coco.\u00a0 Many people thought she needed help the most<\/em>, and many people also thought she needed help the least<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’m sure the outcome would have been different if I’d made Ada’s life a little bit less miserable – if there’d been no tail-pulling child, for instance.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there is no right or wrong answer. There’s just different perspectives and priorities.<\/p>\n

And answering those questions IS difficult.<\/p>\n

That’s why it’s an ethical dilemma, right – no matter how you choose, you feel like you’ve made a bad decision…!<\/p>\n

Welfare is a social construct, and the question “what is animal welfare?” is\u00a0 deceptively simple – as shown by the outcome of the polls you just went through.<\/p>\n

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Three welfare perspectives: health, happiness, and inherent behaviour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People prioritize welfare from 3 different perspectives, depending on their\u00a0 ethical and philosophical viewpoints:<\/p>\n