First of all, animals should not be used for work because :im-vegan: . But having said that... I see how human labor creates surplus value. And I think I understand why machines don't create surplus value. But what about animals that get exploited to perform work, say the mule that pulls a plow? Like humans, they require a "real wage" to sustain them i.e. food, shelter, and medical attention, right? And if the value of labor power of a day of a mule is say 2 hours (that's how much human labor is invovlved in making feed, etc), then if this mule works for more than 2 hours, are they not creating surplus value for the capitalist that claims to own them?

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        they aren't but they do involve it. how the animal feels about things depends a lot on how their trained and treated

          • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            yeah if a horse is broken they will hate riding but if you train them by building trust and continue to treat them with care and compassion they will enjoy riding.

            breaking a horse is just one particularly way of getting them to take a rider and it's an evil way of doing it

      • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
        ·
        3 years ago

        i'm not gonna make any blanket statements about animal domestication but i have no idea how anyone can learn anything about horse training and riding and think the animal is doing everything voluntarily lol

      • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        breaking horses is one way to get a horse to take a rider but there are other ways. You can train a dog by beating them and you can make a man work by whipping them but those aren't the only ways to do so