Would you save your pet or a stranger's child?

[NotADailyMailJournalist]

Hello all

Slightly inspired by another thread where posters were surprised that people were more interested in someone's dog than their baby...

If you have a cat/dog and you could only save it or a stranger's child/baby, what would you choose?

For the purposes of this thread, no-one would ever find out you'd been given the choice, so you wouldn't face any consequences.

Thanks

I will get totally stoned for this but I absolutely love my dog so so much & I would save him🙈

This.
I've had a dog & cat pts over the last few years and lost another cat who was hit by a car outside my house. If I knew it had happened sooner, I would have rushed out to get her to a vet myself to try and save her. Their loss is still raw to me.

Op so you were rooting for the pet answer! Look if you don't have a child you haven't experienced how innocent they are, how much unconditionally you can love them. A child's love really is very intense and different. It gives you instincts to protect all children. So even if you don't feel like that now, you are very likely to feel differently in the future. Especially if you have love for a pet.

I should've known people would have looked at that instead of everything else I said.

I'd not sacrifice her for someone I've never met and don't know, is the crux of the matter for me. She's been better to me than anyone I know, let alone ones I don't. Many of us could help change/save human lives more than we do and we don't do it.

I also note that about psychopaths/sociopaths. Still being debated as is all of our exploration of the human psyche, and most of them aren't bad people. I'm not offended to be described as one, despite knowing that I am not.

Strangers child

Why? My spaniel is the only thing that keeps my own mum going everyday you won’t believe the story’s I could tell u about the dog, she’s very very smart my mum has had 3 heart attacks and the dog has never left her side since the first one it’s unbelievable so yes I would my we spaniel she now lives with my mum and comforts her everyday and night

How close are we to the child geographically? Because I spend way more on my cat than would improve /save the life of a child on a different continent.

I love my dog. I joke about him being my favourite child. If someone else's child and a dog were in a room, I would play with the dog more than the child because im not that intetested in other peoples children ( although I'm desperate to hold a chubby little baby again) However, there would be no question that I would save a strangers child over my dog!

I'm not shouting at you, I'm using caps to emphasise the distinction between MY child and a STRANGER's child so you can correct your misunderstanding of the original question.

Anyway, no-one here is saying they don't care about kids, just that some care about themselves/their pets more.

OP why don’t you do a voting options thing if you think people are just trying to make themselves look good? You’d get anonymous responses then.

I know critically endangered species versus 1 of 7 billion.
The child dying would have been a tragedy for the family yes. But harambe dying was a tragedy for the world

Nah, I knew the answer would be stranger's child. But interested in the debate.

Always child, but particularly so today as the cat is being extra arseholey.

💯 child

Interesting question OP!

I think in a scenario where someone is looking at a drowning strangers child and their drowning pet, they would save the child first of course.

BUT…if it’s a non-specific scenario where either the pet dies (don’t know how or when or where) or an unknown unseen child dies (don’t know how or when or where) and your decision is totally secret then I think more people would opt to save their pet.

My dog is my reason for living, I'd love to be able to say I'd save her over the child, but I couldn't. My conscience would make me save the child, then I'll jump off the nearest motor way bridge

And do you not consider what loosing a CHILD would do to a family? Fuck me some of the answers on here are mind boggling. People admitting proudly they would rather see a child die than a pet just because it's theirs.

The child of course, or an adult for that matter.

I want to start a new thread now "why do you buy luxuries instead of sending all your money to buy anti-malaria nets given you love strangers' children so much"?

But everyone is entitled to feel how they do? If the question was your mum (or someone else very important to you) or a strangers child, should you have to choose the child just because it’s a CHILD?!

Not many people are that bothered that 1000s of children die around the world every day, until it comes to things like this, where everyone is talking about how devastating it is for families to lose children. Yes it is devastating. And if those of us with a bit more money and/or clout all got and/or did our bit, we could help prevent it. But we don't. Now, we're given a hypothetical scenario where we'd have a straightforward choice requiring not much in the means of critical thinking and we all apparently feel differently.

A child obviously . A child who has there whole life ahead of them . I can’t imagine living with the guilt of been able to save a child’s life over a dog

Before I had children, I would've said my pet, without a doubt.

Now that I'm a mother, I 100% would save the stranger's child.
My dog is my baby but I couldn't put him before the life of a child.

The child without question although I'd be devastated to lose our dog. Losing a child is a completely different sphere of grief and tragedy.

Because it’s hypothetical, I’m immediately drawn to saying I’d choose my dog, because I know and
love him. But if it came to it of course I’d save the child.