What do humans owe animals (pets, livestock, wild animals)?
Hank says humans owe care to the animals they bred, and since 2016 that vegetarians are right, though he still eats some meat; in 2024 he predicted people will look back on killing animals for food with horror. John has questioned how people treat chickens and which animals they choose to protect, noting a strong bias toward cute ones.
Axis: strong duties (no harm, no ownership) ... few duties (animals are for human use)
Positions by date: 9 records in 9 videos. The position was refined (2010), never reversed, in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-09-27 | first on record | John suggests maybe he shouldn't eat so many eggs given the chickens' miserable lives, then calls that inadequately complex since without eating them chickens would go extinct. | TV For Chickens 00:02:08 |
| 2015-04-07 | restate | John says humans choose which animals to value and protect, and are very biased toward cute organisms; he wishes the film critiqued that aesthetic of cute. | John Reviews Kids Movies 00:03:05 |
| 2017-04-25 | restate | John says caging the adorable is weird, but less weird considering that is our relationship with many non-human animals. | Pokemon, Reviewed by a Dad Who Knows Nothing about Pokemon 00:02:54 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-12-17 | first on record | Hank argues that because humans bred companion animals like cats, we are responsible for every member of their species, so we should fund humane societies and spay and neuter. | Project for Awesome: Explanation and Humane Societies 00:02:08 |
| 2010-01-29 (said on 2010-01-30, implied) | refine | Hank, who rarely takes absolute sides, says the dolphin harvest in Japan is beyond words; the closest is 'xenocide'. | The iPad and Dolphin Murder 00:03:25 |
| 2016-01-22 | restate | Hank says vegetarians are right: eating meat is something he does not need to do but does, though it makes the world worse for current animals and future people; he will keep eating less, but not no, meat. | Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift) 00:01:53 |
| 2016-02-12 | restate | Hank says he has been thinking about this since his vegetarianism video: he is not a vegetarian although he should be and knows it. → refers to Why Are Vegetarians Annoying? (An Exploration of a Cultural Rift) | Doing the Hard(er) Thing (and some very bad news) 00:01:58 |
| 2023-09-08 | restate | Hank says that as giraffes prove more social, split into several species, and lose habitat and population fast, their conservation becomes even more important. | Giraffes are Way More Complicated Than We Thought 00:04:52 |
| 2024-08-02 | restate | Hank predicts we will not kill many animals for food and will look back on it with horror; chicken products especially will be replaced by nutritionally and ethically superior ones. | My Letter to the Future 00:00:59 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).