very irritating how often i see people anthropomorphize nonhuman animals (especially wild animals) on this site and online at large but very disappointing that when someone says 'hey don't project human emotions onto that bird/dog/bear/deer etc.' a bunch of other people are like 'exactly. animals don't care' and then go on to describe nonhuman animals as incapable of sentience, compassion, or thought. perhaps there's a secret option about how nonhuman animals think and feel that's neither 'they think and feel exactly as humans do' nor 'they don't think or feel anything.' but idk i'm just some guy.
it’s a mistake to assume that nonhuman animals have the same conscious experiences as you, but it is also wrong to assume they dont have any conscious experiences at all. both of these are damagingly human-centric, both will lead you to misconceptions about why animals do things, and both completely disregard the unfathomable diversity of possible ways to experience reality.
