Do you believe that intelligence is a basis upon which we should decide how to treat other living creatures?

Plants and animals are alive... we need to eat them to survive.

Intelligence really should not play too much factor. The strong survive. Humans have (for the most part) killed the creatures that are a threat to our existence.

Now who's to say that the birds and animals who live off of what Mother Nature provides are not the most intelligent. The fact that humans try to control Mother Nature with dams, pulling water away from rivers to support life in deserts (Las Vegas), drilling the earth and burning the minerals that are not supposed to be burned- killing the ozone layer, over population, and etc. would show me that humans are not the most intelligent. We work all day doing whatever to survive, living in a place with plumbing (most of us in America), and etc. not living off what Mother Nature gave us. We eat processed "juiced up" chickens and tomatoes, and WE are really the biggest virus this planet knows.

Just think how much we have damaged the earth just in the last 400 years, and especially since the invent of the engine and mass production.

So- the fact that something is alive and can feel pain doesn't matter. We all need to survive, and all creatures and plants "eat" other stuff. The circle of life.

A person is smart... people are stupid!

You're actually closer than most people think. It's not intelligence that is the best basis, but USEFULNESS.

This is why we get rid of criminals but keep cats around. Cats make us (well, some of us) happy, feel socialized, needed, and so on. Criminals generally are criminalized because their efforts interfere with the general progress of our lives. They get in the way, so we get them out of our way.

You will find that this is true pretty much across the board. Cute animals we like are far more protected and prized than ugly ones. Useful animals are domesticated and cultivated, while destructive ones are eliminated. People who are intelligent can usually FIND ways to make themselves useful, while people who are not have to rely on whatever inherent usefulness they have to their family or society.

If there's a better single standard, I have yet to hear of it.

On what other basis anybody could make a decision regarding anything, I can't begin to imagine. Since intelligence is pretty much equal to thought, and thought is required for sentient creatures to make decisions, we pretty much have no other choice but to use intelligence to make decisions.

EDIT: Okay, I get you. I thought you were asking if people should use their brains to decide these things, and of course that's a yes.

I know my opinion will be unpopular, but I believe animals are to be used for the betterment of mankind. They should not be thoughlessly disposed of, but conserved as any non-renewable resource should.

I think that we should treat all life with respect; however I feel that the more intelligent is an important factor that differentiates humans from other animals. If the government is in a position where they can negatively impact lesser animals in order to positively benefit humans, then they should make that decision.

No.

Firstly, who's standards of intelligence should be used? This could lead to discrimination in the bad sense.

Secondly, if we use intelligence as a measure then mentally retarded humans, for want of a better term, could be treated badly.

Thirdly, if more intelligent beings from space arrived and decided to eat us, we could hardly claim that our inferior intelligence should protect us when we had already harmed other life forms here for being less intelligent than us.

Fourthly, in history dominators tended to justify their actions by claiming among other things that the conqured were less intelligent.

If you're intelligent enough to figure out that there's nothing more important, wonderful or powerful in life than love, then intelligence can be the basis for making that decision. However, intelligent people can make all kinds of stupid, self-destructive, mean-spirited decisions about life, and that can be manifested in the shabby way they treat other living creatures. You don't have to be all that intelligent to know that love is that powerful; you just have to be willing to see that's the way it is, and you have to be willing to utilize that information in how you live your life each moment that you are alive.

I think it is the basis of what conversation you have with the other person but not the way you treat them...

Animals are just a different story

No. Everyone/everything feels, both emotional and physical. No matter one's level of thinking, everyone can feel pain caused by mistreatment.

If you're sibling was smarter than you, should your parents keep you outside to eat any scraps tossed out the window? No

what so dogs dont count as much as koalas because they have lower iq? like don't worry about killing dogs, its the koalas we need to watch out for. absolutly not. thats horrible. I think that all types of animals are important and have the right to life. and im not some fruity tree hugger who drinks soy milk (sorry for the sterotype) i hate spiders and im allergic to cats. but that dosent mean that they are less important.

No, and it is not condoned by most people even today.