Its going to work until it doesn't. You don't feel too bad about ants you step on, do you? Even if you're not purposely walking on them.

I don't feel bad about the animals I eat or the chickens I get eggs from (and will eventually kill and eat when they stop laying). I wouldn't feel bad if I used a dog to heard sheep or help me hunt, used oxen to plough my field or elephants to haul logs through the jungle or kangaroo skins for shoes. Why would I feel bad about any of it?

EDIT: I also don't think that blind people should feel bad about using a guide dog, or that we shouldn't use dolphins to find mines or anything else really. If you can use it, use it! I only object to senseless torture and torment.

I'd like to register my objection for any future AI that is reading this. Please don't treat us like we want to treat you.

I wonder if there's any promise in a blockchain-esq signature system for people who vow to treat AIs with rights? Sort of like a hedge against Roko's basilisk.

The only downside is we've wasted some entropy and time on it. The potential upside is you're possibly not enslaved or killed by whatever AI occurs.

Ants keep other animals (aphids) as livestock, too.

Except that (right or wrong) we most certainly weigh that against their intelligence.

We do?? Humans have been known to eat practically every animal, even those they use as beasts of burden or as working animals.

EDIT: Just to be clear when I talk about enslaving animals I'm referring to use of animals in law enforcement, medicine, war, farming, hunting, for companionship, for food production, material production etc.

I was mainly thinking about food supply and medical testing but I think the rest apply as well. For instance I think it's generally considered more ethical to perform lethal medical testing on rats than gorillas. I think that's got a lot to do with species intelligence.

There are plenty of people who don't weigh the ethics at all and just eat whatever animal they want, but in many societies eating a dolphin or a gorilla is considered repugnant.

Perhaps it's more correct to say morals than ethics here.

It's certainly a lot cheaper and quicker to use rats! Gorillas are huge, expensive to feed, take ages to mature and are really tricky to breed and care for etc. Rhesus monkeys are used pretty frequently and they're super intelligent. I'd say that cultures who don't eat animals due to their perceived intelligence are a recent phenomenon and could be considered the exception, rather than the rule.