Why do people care more about animals than humans ?

Sunnyisland

Why do some people care more about animals than humans ?

In the thread about the horse being set on fire the debate here is still ongoing,with rightly outrage against what happened,even though it has been reported that the poor horse was already dead.

In the thread about the very unfortunate homeless man who was set on fire and beaten the thread is barely causing a ripple.

My own opinion is that while the two incidents are very serious the murder of the human being should take huge preference over the horse.

Chinasea

eh have a read, if you can stomach it of these:

http://www.kinndi.com/rips/shame.htm

Take a trip around any of the animal welfare shelters in Ireland and then report back.

This is not a like for like. Both are equally as horrible.

xploderz

Neither of those incidents would shock me any more, I think people have more affection for animals because generally they are a lot more defenseless than humans.

Sunnyisland

xploderz wrote: »

Neither of those incidents would shock me any more, I think people have more affection for animals because generally they are a lot more defenseless than humans.

I would call a man asleep in a sleeping bag pretty defenceless,just last week in cork a man was charged with murder of another homeless man,he left him in a bin chute. Where is there outrage ?


http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/man-charged-with-murder-of-homeless-man-in-cork-1.1594966

johnr1

Because people by and large, are idiots. The longer I live, the more I prefer the qualities of animals.

Real answer; because as more people live in urban enviornments, to which we have not yet had time to adapt, and consequently come into contact with more people and less animals. They also don't see animals which are subsequently eaten for food around them. Thus, animals being rarer, are more highly prized.

Tldr version: People are idiots.

Mint Aero

It reminds of the UL student incident in Limerick few months back.

A person wrote an anonymous letter into the Limerick Leader saying students intentionally killed a dog by making it run into the street after a ball.

Despite no evidence of a dead dog in the area. :rolleyes:
Despite not knowing who wrote the letter. :rolleyes:
No van driver coming forward to verify the incident. :rolleyes:
No witnesses whatsoever. :rolleyes:

Before even knowing if the incident actually happened about 20,000 utter morons on Facebook launched a mob mentality vengeance against all UL students :rolleyes:

Scarleh for y'is

Seachmall

We are desensitised to acts of cruelty against humans. We hear about vile acts committed against people on a daily basis, it's become part of our daily routines. It takes a particularly horrific individual to break through that emotional filtering system for us to pay any real attention to it (e.g. the Lost Prophets' singer).

On the other hand we rarely hear about acts of animal cruelty. Of course we know it happens constantly but we're not constantly bombarded with news of it.

People ignore the familiar and focus on the unique. Hearing about animals being mistreated is unique in that it's rare we're exposed to the details of it. If we were we'd stop paying attention.

Uaru

People are bastards.

Turtwig

realies wrote: »

Why do some people care more about animals than humans ?

In the thread about the horse being set on fire the debate here is still ongoing,with rightly outrage against what happened,even though it has been reported that the poor horse was already dead.

In the thread about the very unfortunate homeless man who was set on fire and beaten the thread is barely causing a ripple.

My own opinion is that while the two incidents are very serious the murder of the human being should take huge preference over the horse.

Because one thing generally brings universal condemnation. The viewpoints on animal cruelty and how to tackle it tend to be far more dispersed.
The level of conversation in a thread isn't an indicator of how much people care about something. Because odds are you have the same few posters keeping the thread alive. Everyone else has long since left.

Grayson

xploderz wrote: »

Neither of those incidents would shock me any more, I think people have more affection for animals because generally they are a lot more defenseless than humans.

I think it's because people are idiots. many people would save a dog rather than a human. This article mentions a survey

A recent paper by Richard Topolski at George Regents University and colleagues, published in the journal Anthrozoös, demonstrates this human involvement with pets to a startling extent. Participants in the study were told a hypothetical scenario in which a bus is hurtling out of control, bearing down on a dog and a human. Which do you save? With responses from more than 500 people, the answer was that it depended: What kind of human and what kind of dog?

Everyone would save a sibling, grandparent or close friend rather than a strange dog. But when people considered their own dog versus people less connected with them—a distant cousin or a hometown stranger—votes in favor of saving the dog came rolling in. And an astonishing 40% of respondents, including 46% of women, voted to save their dog over a foreign tourist. This makes Parisians' treatment of American tourists look good in comparison.

There's more details here . It's scary something like 3-5% of men said they would rescue their dog rather than their best friend. More than 10% of women said the same.

Those people are sad deluded human beings.

hfallada

I think its because people dont want to acknowledge there is a large amount of poverty on their doorstep. However animals are cute and easy to talk about.

I think its ridiculous when people talk about giving money to dog charities, when the dog kennel facilities are better than most homeless shelters( if you are lucky to get a place in one). The irish government does very little to tackle poverty other than social welfare payments. There was talk of a homeless free society from the government by 2015 this week. But we have heard that there will be homeless next year, for the last 10 years

Gatling

This just shows how pathetic some of boards.ie community really is ,

A dead horse vs a dad,brother, son ,nephew battered then burned to death in a public park and all we hear is ohhh the poor dead horse in tallaght ,

We humans can be so ****ing disgusting

P.Walnuts

Seachmall wrote: »

We are desensitised to acts of cruelty against humans. We hear about vile acts committed against people on a daily basis, it's become part of our daily routines. It takes a particularly horrific individual to break through that emotional filtering system for us to pay any real attention to it (e.g. the Lost Prophets' singer).

On the other hand we rarely hear about acts of animal cruelty. Of course we know it happens constantly but we're not constantly bombarded with news of it.

People ignore the familiar and focus on the unique. Hearing about animals being mistreated is unique in that it's rare we're exposed to the details of it. If we were we'd stop paying attention.

Yep I'd agree with that, most of us on a daily or at least weekly basis would watch a tv show/film where people are killed ect, I think we are desensitised to violence towards humans, although there are some cases that do shock due to their depravity.

Another I think there is another issue, the most heinous crimes are those commited against children, this is because imo children are vulnerable and defenceless and usually trusting in those people that hurt them.

When people abuse/kill animals they are killing a creature who is also defenceless at at the mercy of the person, so any act carried out not of necessity but of pure cruelty.

Now, I'm not for a second comparing crimes against children against crimes against animals, but I think there is a common theme there of helplessness on the victims side, and power and cruelty on the perpetrators side.

Lapin

realies wrote: »

In the thread about the horse being set on fire the debate here is still ongoing,with rightly outrage against what happened,even though it has been reported that the poor horse was already dead.

In the thread about the very unfortunate homeless man who was set on fire and beaten the thread is barely causing a ripple.

The thread with the horse has less to do with the poor animal and more to do with the location.

If the unfortunate homeless man was found dead in Tallaght rather than the Phoenix Park it would be a megathread by now.

Its got very little to do with people caring more about animals than they do for people. More to do with a few twats knocking a Dublin suburb because they get a kick out of trolling. Most of them have probably never been to Tallaght.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

I can somewhat get the outrage from strict vegans as they genuinely care about animals, and to generalise (positively), most vegans seem to be in the let's care for people, the environment, about air quality, social justice and all that kinda stuff as well.

Then you get to the rest (most) of the people who behave more outraged over a dead horse than a dead person and you get into the extremely hypocritical, slightly insane area. People who pontificate with faux outrage over a horse being set on fire while at the same time not giving a flying **** about the conditions of where the eggs for their breakfast came from, or think of the slaughter house where the steak they eat was made with a bolt gun and lots of blood and that the chicken they eat is genetically modified to grow so fast that it's body would be out of proportion if it was let grow to adulthood.

I'm not or never have been a vegetarian just to say.

HansHolzel

To worry more about a dog than a human is... inhuman.

It is also decadent. Decadence is as a consequence of a sanitized social environment where filth, pain and death are segregated from everyday life. Just because one does not come into contact with them, though, does not mean they no longer obtain. In such a context, decadence signifies habits of thought deriving from this segregation.

Animal-rights extremism in the midst of, say, homelessness, exemplifies the phenomenon.

P.Walnuts

hfallada wrote: »

I think its because people dont want to acknowledge there is a large amount of poverty on their doorstep. However animals are cute and easy to talk about.

I think its ridiculous when people talk about giving money to dog charities, when the dog kennel facilities are better than most homeless shelters( if you are lucky to get a place in one). The irish government does very little to tackle poverty other than social welfare payments. There was talk of a homeless free society from the government by 2015 this week. But we have heard that there will be homeless next year, for the last 10 years

Your talking out your arse there to be fair, do you know how many dogs are put down a year in Ireland?

About 15 a day.

Ye lovely dog shelters alright, nice and comfy before the vet come and puts you to sleep.

meoklmrk91

It shows what a sad state the country is in, whoever committed these acts of horrific violence quite frankly deserves the same, to burn a living being, be they human or animal, is just one of cruelest acts that one can possibly imagine. We really need to take a look at homeless services, particularly now when that more man who was just sleeping was targeted like that, Jesus there are some some serious sociopaths running around the place.

Both cases have struck a cord for me, I have stated on boards many times that we need to take animal cruelty more seriously because those who perpetrate it will have no problem doing the same to a human. I am geniumely disgusted that either of these cases could happen here in Ireland.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Cause animals aren't bad. They're defenceless against the scum that a lot of humans are.

Animals are kind and loving, never expecting anything in return, not just all about themselves. They aren't evil and nasty, two faced lying scum.

Not a lot of people you can say that about. Contrary to popular belief, humans aren't more superior to any other living creature.

I'd be more upset hearing about an animal being mistreated than I would about a human being hurt

Sunnyisland

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Cause animals aren't bad. They're defenceless against the scum that a lot of humans are.

Animals are kind and loving, never expecting anything in return, not just all about themselves. They aren't evil and nasty, two faced lying scum.

Not a lot of people you can say that about. Contrary to popular belief, humans aren't more superior to any other living creature.

I'd be more upset hearing about an animal being mistreated than I would about a human being hurt

Are you for real, I just don't get people like you at all, not one bit.

Karl Stein

Like small children, animals can't speak or tell someone that they're being maltreated and they look up to humans and trust them.

I think that's why people get enraged at cruelty to animals and kids.

Irish Guitarist

I didn't read either thread. I was already sorry I clicked on the one about Ian Watkins a few days ago.

Maybe after reading the thread about a dead horse people decided they had read enough misery for one day.

Wabbit Ears

I like pretty much all animals I meet, cant say that about people.

Sunnyisland

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

I like pretty much all animals I meet, cant say that about people.

You would say that wabbit wouldent you

Balaclava1991

Hitler loved his dog Blondie and could not abide cruelty to animals.
This was probably due to the trauma of losing his pet dog - his only friend at the time - during an attack on the Western Front during WWI.
He apparently was very affectionate toward the children of his henchmen and entourage.
Hitler could not tolerate mature women who answered him back and preferred women like his wife Eva Braun who never bothered him with intelligent conversation.

His attitude to humanity was that mankind was just a beast and the struggle for life was an inevitable violent struggle which the strong were destined to win and the weak were destined to lose and perish. The German race of course would always come out on top. There was no room for pity.

So when he received reports of young able bodied soldiers dying in the hundreds of thousands or the elderly and young children burned alive by incendiary bombs or millions of Jews slaughtered in the camps like cattle it was a matter of supreme indifference.

This was a man who would be moved to tears and ecstasy by the music of Wagner but would order his brother in law Fegelein shot.

However in the end even Blondie was not spared - becoming the test subject of the cyanide capsules he and his wife took to kill themselves.

Seachmall

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Animals are kind and loving, never expecting anything in return, not just all about themselves.

Clearly cats are absent from whatever world you live in.

btard

realies wrote: »

Why do some people care more about animals than humans ?

In the thread about the horse being set on fire the debate here is still ongoing,with rightly outrage against what happened,even though it has been reported that the poor horse was already dead.

In the thread about the very unfortunate homeless man who was set on fire and beaten the thread is barely causing a ripple.

My own opinion is that while the two incidents are very serious the murder of the human being should take huge preference over the horse.

My dog gives me loyalty and unconditional love. If it came to a choice between saving you, some other stranger, or my dog, I'd pick my dog in a heartbeat. Your high opinion of the human race is not shared by me. You can all go to hell in a handbasket for all I care. We are an abomination on this beautiful planet and the sooner we make ourselves extinct and leave it to the animals and plants the better. That's if we don't make it uninhabitable for all life first before we snuff our selfish selves out.

And before you come back with that 'are you for real' and you 'don't get it' crap. I am for real and I couldn't care less what you get.

HansHolzel

What's your dog's name? Blondi?

Balaclava1991

btard wrote: »

My dog gives me loyalty and unconditional love. If it came to a choice between saving you, some other stranger, or my dog, I'd pick my dog in a heartbeat. Your high opinion of the human race is not shared by me. You can all go to hell in a handbasket for all I care. We are an abomination on this beautiful planet and the sooner we make ourselves extinct and leave it to the animals and plants the better. That's if we don't make it uninhabitable for all life first before we snuff our selfish selves out.

And before you come back with that 'are you for real' and you 'don't get it' crap. I am for real and I couldn't care less what you get.

Do you not see the contradiction in their statement?

You call the rest of the human race an abomination but you say you would save your dog before you would save another human being?

Do you not think it is monstrous that dogs and cats are treated better in the West than babies and children in the Third World who die by the millions every year from dirty water or lack of food?

If human suffering does not move you then you aren't entitled to call yourself human.

You must be some other species but you aren't my species.

Kikin

"My tragedy is worse than your tragedy"

Ffs both acts were extremely depraved and horrific and the idiots involved in both cases should be removed from society. Why the need to compare them, even using the post counts on each thread to make a point.

Animal cruelty is wrong, and shouldn't be tolerated.
Human cruelty is wrong, and shouldn't be tolerated.

Can we leave it there, most pointless argument ever.

btard

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Do you not see the contradiction in their statement?

You call the rest of the human race an abomination but you say you would save your dog before you would save another human being?

Do you not think it is monstrous that dogs and cats are treated better in the West than babies and children in the Third World who die by the millions every year from dirty water or lack of food?

If human suffering does not move you then you aren't entitled to call yourself human.

You must be some other species but you aren't my species.

Human suffering does move me. Too much. Those babies die in the third world because of other humans. They could be saved by humans. Humans don't give a ****. Be proud of your species.

btard

HansHolzel wrote: »

What's your dog's name? Blondi?

Nah. Sounds a bit gay for a dogs name. He's called 'go kiss my ass'. :cool:

Balaclava1991

btard wrote: »

Human suffering does move me. Too much. Those babies die in the third world because of other humans. They could be saved by humans. Humans don't give a ****. Be proud of your species.

What are you personally doing about human suffering?
When people stop you in the street or knock on your door do you signed on to a least one charity and donate a few quid a month? Do you fill your Trocaire box every year? Or would you be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do aid work in the Third World for a few years? Do you support political groups lobbying governments to highlight human rights abuses?
If you don't then I find your language rather hypocritical and self-righteous.

HansHolzel

btard wrote: »

Nah. Sounds a bit gay for a dogs name. He's called 'go kiss my ass'. :cool:

A dog befriending a donkey. Cool.

btard

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

What are you personally doing about human suffering?
When people stop you in the street or knock on your door do you signed on to a least one charity and donate a few quid a month? Do you fill your Trocaire box every year? Or would you be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do aid work in the Third World for a few years? Do you support political groups lobbying governments to highlight human rights abuses?
If you don't then I find your language rather hypocritical and self-righteous.

I don't. That's what the rest of you sanctimonious humans do to salve your conscience. You might as well piss in to the wind. Those children are still suffering and dying.

Balaclava1991

btard wrote: »

I don't. That's what the rest of you sanctimonious humans do to salve your conscience. You might as well piss in to the wind. Those children are still suffering and dying.

A few less children will suffer and die if you do something.
If you do absolutely nothing then you will make absolutely no difference.
Suffering and dying has always existed and will always exist.
Striving to change things even in the face of inevitable defeat gives life meaning.
The alternative is black despair.

onlyrocknroll

Are people aware that we are talking about an actual specific real homeless man who was murdered?

A lot of these posts saying "because people are scum" (and by extension more deserving of mistreatment) are absolutely disgusting in the context of this thread.

Irish Guitarist

Although I didn't read and have no intention of reading the thread about the horse I can imagine the life he (or she) had. Left in a field neglected until he starved to death. Then a bunch of scumbags found the body and thought it would be hilarious to set it on fire.

It goes without saying that a homeless man being murdered is a tragedy. I don't know the specific details about it because I'd prefer not to read that thread either.

I'm not going to sit around thinking about which I care about the most because they're both incredibly sad.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

A few less children will suffer and die if you do something.
If you do absolutely nothing then you will make absolutely no difference.
Suffering and dying has always existed and will always exist.
Striving to change things even in the face of inevitable defeat gives life meaning.
The alternative is black despair.

Id prefer to donate my time to an animal shelter, foster an animal with no home or support animal charities.

As for the sadistic bastard who set the horse on fire, are you honestly telling me people like them are still worth more than the defenceless animal they killed? Bull****.

HansHolzel

The horse was already dead. Cremation isn't sadism.

shleedance

Can I play devil's advocate here?

As much as people don't like to admit it, humans are part of the animal kingdom too. The most intelligent perhaps, but that does not mean we're any way "different" or "special".

With this logic, animal abuse also includes abuse of humans. To think it's bad to harm a dog yet it's okay to not care about human suffering is quite ironic in this sense, and shows the selfish reasons on why people care about other animals. In other words, you don't really care about animals at all in any genuine manner by excluding humans.

As for other animals, they're not exactly saints for the most part. Humans may have the potential to destroy the world 5 times over, but most animals live by killing, intimidating and harming others, just like humans, even if their capacity to kill isn't nowhere as near. Even the cute, cuddly ones. I wouldn't like to be near an aggressive bear as much as I would not like to be near some knife-bearing lunatic, for example.

But this does not consider people who are genuinely friendly and wouldn't hurt anyone. Is it fair to tar them in the same brush as people who harm each other or animals? In what authority do you have to instantly assume that if they're not you or your friends, they're instantly pricks?


To cut it short: Animal abuse is horrible, and humans are included in this too. It's best to treat humans and other animals like with respect and treat any form of abuse with outrage.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

onlyrocknroll wrote: »

Are people aware that we are talking about an actual specific real homeless man who was murdered?

A lot of these posts saying "because people are scum" (and by extension more deserving of mistreatment) are absolutely disgusting in the context of this thread.

Nobody is saying that man deserved to be burned to death, it's an absolutely awful thing to happen, and it's beyond comprehension than anyone would be capable of doing such a thing to another living person - however, any living creature subjected to that level of torture is vile, and leaving that man that was murdered out of this, as nobody is saying he deserved to be killed, it's a reflection on the kind of society we live in and who we are forced to share oxygen with. You'd be safer living in the wild tbh

Seachmall

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Nobody is saying that man deserved to be burned to death

Given btard wished the extinction of the human race for how it acts I can't see how he's not saying the homeless man deserved it (by nature of being human none-the-less).

You'd be safer living in the wild tbh

Nonsense.

Pretty much every human city, town and village is safer to live in than the wild.

xploderz

LexieOnRale wrote: »

As for the sadistic bastard who set the horse on fire, are you honestly telling me people like them are still worth more than the defenceless animal they killed? Bull****.

That's actually a very good point, would love to see the likes of Balaclava1991 etc make a reasonable argument against it.

Seachmall

xploderz wrote: »

That's actually a very good point, would love to see the likes of Balaclava1991 etc make a reasonable argument against it.

Are you going to craft the strawman or just leave us with the blueprints for one?

xploderz

Seachmall wrote: »

Are you going to craft the strawman or just leave us with the blueprints for one?

Blueprints

I just think it's a good point, anyone arguing that ALL human life should always take priority over an animals. Would they prefer to live in a society with the moron who torched the horse, or the horse itself?

Gatling

OK do people on hers have sex their dogs and horses ,

Unconditional love and undying love surely if you love your pets that much more than fellow humans I'd say more than a few take it to the next level

Da Shins Kelly

I thought it would seem fairly obvious. Animals, like children, are among the most vulnerable in society. They look to us for protection and guidance. A brutal attack on the vulnerable shows a particular kind of depravity.

HansHolzel

Are komodo dragons nicer than people?

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Gatling wrote: »

OK do people on hers have sex their dogs and horses ,

Unconditional love and undying love surely if you love your pets that much more than fellow humans I'd say more than a few take it to the next level

I'm sure people love their children even more than they love their pets, maybe some of them are up on their kids too??

What a disgusting asshole comment to make.

Kess73

Mint Aero wrote: »

It reminds of the UL student incident in Limerick few months back.

A person wrote an anonymous letter into the Limerick Leader saying students intentionally killed a dog by making it run into the street after a ball.

Despite no evidence of a dead dog in the area. :rolleyes:
Despite not knowing who wrote the letter. :rolleyes:
No van driver coming forward to verify the incident. :rolleyes:
No witnesses whatsoever. :rolleyes:

Before even knowing if the incident actually happened about 20,000 utter morons on Facebook launched a mob mentality vengeance against all UL students :rolleyes:

Scarleh for y'is

There was a dead dog and the owner of the dog gave an interview to the Limerick Leader newspaper. Also the first letter to the paper was signed and that person came forward.

From what I remember about that incident the only anonymous letter was the one that was supposedly from a student who claimed to be present when the dog was killed, and who was saying that no students were at fault.