How many kittens/puppies would you sacrifice to save one person?

[the_green_dragon]

Ok, this is a spin-off from the Kitten buried in concrete thread.

Let me make this straight. It is not cool to bury kittens alive. EVER. or torture animals.

This is just a philosophical question that comes from someone saying humans are better then kittens and someone says no we're not. Lol

So if a Demon appears and claims it will kill either 1 human or X amount of kittens/Puppies (whichever one u cared about more (dog/cat people) or a combination)

How many Kittens/Puppies would you be willing to sacrifice? 1? 10? 100? 1000? 10,000? All kittens?

Would this number change if that person was an unknown person from the other side of the world.
How many?

Would this change if it was someone close to you? Boyfriend/Girlfriend, mum/dad, brother/sister?
How many?

 

[Kae]

I hate cats and I'm not a big fan of dogs either, in fact I think I just don't like animals, so I'm more likely to save the person over the animals unless it's a ridiculous amount of animals that will leave the species endangered, or a breed of that species, but yeah I'm more likely to go for the person.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

If it's a stranger. Fuck him, I don't know him so why should I care?
For my Girlfriend. As many as it takes. Just give me the number of kittens and puppies, a cardboard box and the address to the nearest Demon shrine/Volcano
For the rest of my family. 100 of each at most.

 

[White Lightning]

Depends on who the person is.

 

[Aris Khandr]

For a stranger: No kittens, maybe like 5 puppies. I don't like dogs, but I don't like strangers, either.

For a loved one: How many can I get my hands on? I love kittens, but I love my loved ones more. For puppies, I'll just say "all of them". I'll throw in all the bugs, too.

Casual acquaintance: Like maybe 3 kittens, depending on how much I like them and what kind of kittens they are. I'd probably let them die if they were tiger kittens, as tigers are awesome. 15-20 puppies.

 

[MRMIdAS2k]

A million. of either. or all of them. Human life is more important.

 

[Heronblade]

In all honesty, I would avoid saying a damn thing in such a situation. Such a creature couldn't be trusted even if I was inclined to play its little mind game rather than going for a gun.

In the interest of answering the presented question however, I'd have to say there is insufficient data to give a coherent answer.

There are individual human beings that I would sacrifice all kittens and puppies in the entire damn world to save, including the pair that I am helping to raise right now. This would in fact be my answer for a very large chunk of the world's population. As much as I care for animals, innocent sentient life will almost always have more value.

At the same time however, there are plenty of people I can think of that I would have a hard time choosing if it was a hundred or so of them vs. a single kitten. Let's just say that while I'm overprotective of human beings that are deserving of that title, I am also firmly of the belief that those who continually abuse this life do not deserve the opportunity.

 

[TWRule]

I'd appreciate it if people avoided invoking philosophy if they just want to ask a silly hypothetical question...

Anyway, my personal answer is that I'd ask the person what they wanted (no matter who it was), but by default I'd tend to prioritize human life over any number of animals. It is misguided to try to quantify and weigh such things as though they were all finite values that could be computed, no matter what choice you'd make.

 

[Shock and Awe]

A random person? Thousands upon thousands. A person is always worth infinitely more.

A loved one? Hundreds of thousands. NONE CAN ESCAPE THE RUSTLING.

 

[FalloutJack]

Uhhh, none.

I like kittens and puppies. People...not so much.

And if you asked me that about my girlfriend, I would sacrifice YOU to save her.

 

[Cosmosis]

How did I even end up in this absurd situation? Why's demon picking me? I've made my dues with Hell.

Anyway.

This dude's putting me on the spot, but I don't know if I could do it. I'd feel guilty as all sin either way. I mean. I mean, puppies, kittens, rabbits, mole rats, pit vipers, Brazilian wandering spiders, tapeworms, and whatever they got these days are living things too, they like living. They got life in their eyes, man. I mean I can sympathize and empathize and all those thizes with a person better, yeah, and it's even worse if I don't know who it is. Like, what if it's a dude's like... a pilot? Or a bus driver?

Sweet Jesus, I can't make this decision! And this sonsofbitch wants numbers? How much time is the demon giving me to figure this all out?