Animals vs humans

[fifi669]

AIBU to think if faced with choosing a pet over a human (even if a stranger), you should choose the human?

The idea was brought up in another thread and put in life or death situation. Building on fire contains your pet and a stranger. You could only save one, who would it be?

I had a dog, Ralph, I cried my heart out when he died 3 years ago. The only dog I wasn't scared of! But I can't imagine leaving a person to die instead, no matter how my heart would break.

You need to use some instead of but.
It will be clumsy, but I hope that's what you meant.

I'm another who can't really believe the number of people who would leave a person to die and take their dog. Not everyone seems to even want to save a baby above a pet.

Just to add something in to the mix. Don't some countries have a "duty to rescue" law? According to wikipedia (!) in France, if you deliberately fail to provide assistance to a person in danger you can be sent to prison for 5 years. If you were breaking the law would you still save your pet, even if it meant you might not get to see them for 5 years?

Yes? Dont quite understand, but never mind.

I can't believe the number of people who actually believe they would definitely risk their own life to rescue a stranger. It's not human nature.

candy It is completely hypothetical. I reckon most people would not enter a burning building at all. It is however very interesting to read the responses. Lots of different and very opposing views.

Risking your life for something you love is entirely natural. The argument here seems to be what is and isn't an appropriate recipient for that love.

Risking your life something/someone you care about is human nature though.

X-posts w/ SharpLily

So everlong, it wouldn't be natural for Robert Mugabe's mother to risk her life for him? If that stranger whom I unwillingly rescued above my dog turned out to be Mugabe, or Pol Pot or similar, wouldn't everyone snort in disgust and tell me I should have saved the dog?

The question didn't say you were risking your own life - the suggestion seemed to be you could rescue a pet or another person without putting yourself at risk. (or without putting yourself at further risk, as you are in a burning building).

"Risking your life for an animal isn't human nature."

And that's an extreme and quite ridiculous generalisation.

I'm taking it as a given that there's some risk involved in entering a burning building. If there's no risk of anyone dying then there would be no moral dilemma.

What's essentially happening in this thread is that some people are trying to dictate how others should bestow their value on life, human or otherwise. It's a bit like trying to persuade others that blue is a better colour than pink, or that sweet potatoes taste better than broad beans. It is unequivocally for an individual to decide. The problem seems to have arisen because one side has hurled an awful lot of insults at the other for preferring Brussels sprouts.

Risking your life for an animal is most definitely human nature. There are many stories in the news about people doing this - dogs in icy ponds, dogs in the sea, cats up trees, cows down holes, horses stuck in mud. The list is endless.

I wouldn't class the decision between saving a cat or a human as a moral dilemma

Agree SharpLily

"Risking your life to save another human being is worlds apart from risking it to save a dog."

To you. Because you have chosen to value all human life above a dog. I do not.

There are plenty of human lives I do not consider worth saving. I don't know a single dog I feel should be put down.

I really do not understand what is so hard to understand.

I care about my dog.

I do not care about strangers.

In a life or death situation I would protect what I care about. Not what someone else may care about.

everlong It seems like you want a pat on the back for being such a 'good' person for choosing to save a human in this completely hypothetical situation.

Beautifully put princess

Really sharp lily? What about those dogs that mauled a young girl to death in her friends house? You'd happily save those??

I find it interesting that none of the 'dog savers' have answered the question of who you would want saved if you were leaving the job to someone else- your family member or essentially a stranger to the person doing the rescuing or the rescuers own pet?