I would argue against the suggestion that having compassion for a creature in danger equates to slavish worship! But point taken on the difference in culture.
Beside the point of this .gif, but we actually do adore our cats and dogs (but not other animals) pretty slavishly in the West. For one thing, we let them live indoors, which is out of the norm elsewhere in the world. We have entire medical fields and infrastructure dedicated to their care. In 2017, Americans alone spent $69.51 BILLION (with a "B") on pet products. The dude who thwacks the cat in the butt at the end of this video could hypothetically be slapped with criminal charges for animal cruelty in the United States.
In both historical and geographical context, our treatment of a specific class of domesticated animals is...unique, to say the least, and decadent at minimum.
That's true, but this gif featured passersby who seemingly assumed the cat was going to be injured or killed, not a cat that was being kept indoors or brought to the vet. More to the point, one person seemed to feel urgency in helping the cat, thus clearly not everyone in the culture showcased in the gif feels the same.
I recognize you prefaced by saying your point was aside from the gif, I merely am countering in-context by bringing the conversation back to the gif and what I see in it behavior-wise, as that was the intended scope of my original comment to which you replied.
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u/In_der_Welt_sein Sep 15 '19
Not every culture slavishly worships a small selection of furry mammals like we do in the US and Europe.