Arthogaan

Should we give give bread to birds? Should we give snickers to homeless?

3 posts in this topic

I recently bought a lot of chocolate bars and left 2 of them each day in the "social fridge" where homeless come to get some food remains that people left them.
I told about it to a friend, and she judged it as irresponsible because it is not healthy for them. And it made me contemplate the issue.

What do you think, what action is moral in those two situations and why:
1. Should you give snickers full of trans fats to hungry homeless person?
2. Should you give old bread to birds even though it is harmfull for them in a long-term?

 


In the Vast Expanse everything that arises is Lively Awakened Awareness.

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I'm going to go meta by saying that anything you do will disturb the "natural" balance of things - no action can sometimes be the best action. However, homeless people require help and compassion and wildlife may also need to be helped at times.

I would say that birds need to be fed something close to what they would eat in the wild. They are less flexible in what they can feed on, and giving bread to birds could make them unhealthy or ill. Seeds and maybe even insects would be a better source of food (but probably more expensive for you).

If giving a Snickers bar is going to save a homeless person's life, then it is ethical to give it them. But since you have the option of giving a homeless person something more nutritious and less harmful you should take the option (even if it's a bit more expensive).

In both cases, with your awareness that you're disturbing the natural balance of things, you should take the course of action that is the least harmful. That means being aware of what birds and people actually need, and not blindly doing things out of a sense of compassion.


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2 hours ago, Arthogaan said:

What do you think, what action is moral in those two situations and why:
1. Should you give snickers full of trans fats to hungry homeless person?

On the one hand they are adults: they have the power to make a decision about whether to eat the chocolate bar or not, it's not forced on them.

On the other hand, how likely they not to eat it? They are more likely to eat it than not to eat it because it's nice, sweet, tasty, kind of comfort food that is hard to resist. When you have something fatty and sugary around you, it's hard to ignore it.

The main concern in eating it is tooth decay because of the sugar and given that they usually don't have access to dentist on the regular basis or/and not brush their teeth, it's bad.

If they do have regular access to the dentist and take care of their teeth, it makes it less bad, even fine.

2 hours ago, Arthogaan said:

2. Should you give old bread to birds even though it is harmfull for them in a long-term?

No. Because they don't know that this bread is bad for them in the long term, they kind of "forced" to eat it by their instincts. They don't have a real choice.

It's humans' responsibility to keep the environment safe, not only for humans but for animals too.

 

Edited by Lila9

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