Why do people care more about animals than humans ?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.