Survey results: A question of (animal) life and death

A few weeks ago I posted a short survey via my Facebook page, asking readers to answer some questions relating to animal life and death. The idea was to test a few hypotheses I had been playing with relating to the different values we place on animal life. The main focus being that certain animals are valued far more highly in our society than others. The results of my survey can be found below. I will hold off on my comments for now, as I’m interested to see how people react…

Which animal(s) to kill?

In the first two questions, all the people you love have been captured, and you must choose which animal(s) to kill in order to save them.

Question 1

In front of you are five animals. You must kill one of these animals in order to save your loved ones. Assuming you are able to kill the animal humanely, which animal do you kill?

Choices (randomised):

• Chicken
• Pig
• Sheep
• Cow
• Horse

Results:

Question 2

You move into a second room, containing far more animals than the first. In this room, the animals are divided into pens based on their breed. The first pen contains a single horse; the second contains two cows; the third contains three sheep; the fourth contains four pigs; and the fifth contains five chickens. You must kill all of the animals in one of the pens in order to save your loved ones. Which pen do you choose?

Choices (randomised):

• x5 Chickens
• x4 Pigs
• x3 Sheep
• x2 Cows
• x1 Horse

Results:

Which animal(s) to save?

In the second part of the survey you now live on a farm. In both questions, there is a calamity on the farm and you must choose which animal(s) to save.

Question 3

There is a fire on the farm. You can only save one animal. Which do you save?

Choices (randomised):

• Chicken
• Pig
• Sheep
• Cow
• Horse

Results:

Question 4

There is a second fire, and you can only save animals based in one section of your farm. Which do you save?

Choices (randomised):

• x5 Chickens
• x4 Pigs
• x3 Sheep
• x2 Cows
• x1 Horse

Results

Comments and feedback

I’m really keen to engage with readers, so I’m holding off on my own comments for now. Needless to say, I find some of these results really quite remarkable! Please do post your own comments either below in the comments section, or on my Facebook page, where previous conversations around this survey have already proved really interesting. I look forward to hearing from you!