Recently I was at a discussion group at the pub, and there was a ladybird (aka Ladybug) running around on the table. At first, I was just enjoying watching it ambiently run around the table, apparently unnoticed by anyone else. But then it started seeming like it was getting confused and a bit more erratic in how it was moving. It looked as if it was panicking, and I felt deeply sad for it.

I know that this was just me projecting human notions onto an insect that isn’t capable of feeling anything close to what I would call panic, but that didn’t really matter to me, because the result of this projection was that I felt a great deal of sympathy towards that poor little ladybug. It made me care enough about it that I coaxed it onto a piece of paper and excused myself to go take it outside.

It’s not something that I would usually do; it would have been very easy to ignore it. Making the effort to take it outside felt like a disproportionate amount of energy for a creature that seemed so insignificant compared to me, but that’s part of why I did it. Perhaps it’s because the discussion group in question was a philosophy one, so I was more primed to reflect on the ethics of the situation.

I’m glad I did take it outside though, because it was something I was able to do with minimal difficulty, and it felt good to be acting in accordance with my values. I’m not great at being consistent about this, but it’s good to try. Humans like to think of ourselves as being above less intelligent animals, but surely that endows us with a duty towards them, because we know better (at least, we suppose we do). We can’t always avoid killing animals that are just doing their thing in the world, but when we can, we probably should.