Can you love a dog as much as a child?

[Bluemooninmyeyes1]

I’m not a dog owner and I don’t have children so I’m pretty clueless on this subject but genuinely interested! I work with someone who talks about her dog more than her own daughter and is constantly posting photos of her dog on social media.

So..is it possible to love your dog as much as your kids?

YABU- You cannot love a dog as much as a child

YANBU- You can definitely love a dog as much as a child

Definitely not.
I don’t even love my husband or my own parents as much as DD, let alone a dog!

I am going to bow out. I have had way too much fake Baileys (peaky blinders "irish cream" - immense) and will not be objective or reasonable. I wish all a Happy New Year.

[quote GlummyMcGlummerson]@Lockheart disagreeing with what she is saying and expressing alarm that she'd be happy to see a baby mauled by a wild animal, is not bullying. [/quote]
I did not at any point say I would be happy to see a child, or anyone for that matter, mauled by a wild animal. I was simply explaining how I don't value human life over animal life. That is not the same as saying I want to see harm come to anybody. Not only are you missing the point of my post completely, but you are putting words in my mouth which is a very unkind thing to do.

Are we back to the hypothetical random child in peril vs dog situation?

Will the batshitery ever end?

FWIW, I agree with isabellanova1.

I don't understand why we (humans) think that our young are more valuable than the young of the other animals we share our planet with. An awful lot of you happily eat the young of other animals, with no concern or thought.

@CarlGrimesRightEyeball

I very much respect your views formerbabe. You often post things that I wish I could "like" (if we had that facility on here!).

Thanks...nicest thing anyone has said about me on here!!

It should be a factor in choosing to save the life of a human child though. You'd deprive that child's family over 80+ years of their life so YOU can spend a few more years with the pet you'd outlive anyway? Can't you see how selfish that is

This is never going to be a choice any of us have to make and so it’s ridiculous that you’re getting so worked up about it.

@formerbabe

I don't know your child. I know my dog. I am not a psycho, or a sociopath if I choose to save the species (canine) that is MINE, over the species (human) that isn't

It would be a hugely self serving thing to do. Put your own mild sadness over losing a pet over other people's extreme sadness at losing a relative...it's hugely lacking in empathy and quite silly seeing as chances are you will outlive your pet anyway.

There you go again with this 'mild sadness' nonsense. Why can't you just accept that while you may only feel mild sadness at losing an animal, everyone is different, and some people find losing an animal to be extremely devastating and traumatic. I have already explained that, in my case, it was worse than losing a relative. If an animal was lost in an awful way, such as a fire, then this would be extra traumatic. I find your complete disregard for the emotions of others, because to you it's just an animal, to be extremely alarming and disturbing.

Are we back to the hypothetical random child in peril vs dog situation?

We certainly are. 🤪🤪🤪

You'd deprive that child's family over 80+ years of their life so YOU can spend a few more years with the pet you'd outlive anyway? Can't you see how selfish that is?

For me, it's not about who can live the longest, it's the fact that both the child and the dog have an equal ability to feel fear and pain.

like many others, I thought i did, until I had my first child. It's not that I didn't love my dog, but the love for a child is just incomparable!

"Are we back to the hypothetical random child in peril vs dog situation?

Will the batshitery ever end?"

I think it's a competition now to see who can come up with the most stupid, never going to happen scenario to prove why anyone who might prefer their own pet to some random unknown child is a sociopath.

I don't want to fight with you @isabellanova1 especially if you were so affected by your pets death....but for most people who lose a pet, it is a mild sadness and doesn't affect the rest of their life.

I think it's a competition now to see who can come up with the most stupid, never going to happen scenario to prove why anyone who might prefer their own pet to some random unknown child is a sociopath.

🤣 Crazy bastards on here.

I did not at any point say I would be happy to see a child, or anyone for that matter, mauled by a wild animal. I was simply explaining how I don't value human life over animal life. That is not the same as saying I want to see harm come to anybody

You questioned wether killing an animal to save a child is the right thing to do. On a "well they shouldn't be In the enclosure" defence for letting the child die. What kind of person thinks twice about this?!

@CarlGrimesRightEyeball

I did comment (under a different name) on the much talked about "who would you save from a burning building" thread. I said I would save my dog.

I think that love can't be defined, or counted. As in, you can't say I love my kid this much and then this other person that much. I think a certain amount of smug parent privilege is prevalent on these types of threads. The type of "you don't know love until you have bred" rhetoric that is untrue, and unhelpful.

It isn't unheard of for people to acknowledge that humans are animals. An intelligent species of animal, but an animal nonetheless. Our sense of superiority has led to many, many issues that have quite literally led to the destruction of other animals.

I don't know your child. I know my dog. I am not a psycho, or a sociopath if I choose to save the species (canine) that is MINE, over the species (human) that isn't.

As an aside, all the above is irrelevant for me personally as my dog died in September.

It is just an opinion. We did used to be able to chat about these things on here.

100% agree.

@CarlGrimesRightEyeball

FWIW, I agree with isabellanova1.

I don't understand why we (humans) think that our young are more valuable than the young of the other animals we share our planet with. An awful lot of you happily eat the young of other animals, with no concern or thought.

Because we have complex relationships with them, they are our species, we've borne them, we are supposed to value them above anything.

I'm at a loss as to why anyone question this TBH

@isabellanova1

You'd deprive that child's family over 80+ years of their life so YOU can spend a few more years with the pet you'd outlive anyway? Can't you see how selfish that is?

For me, it's not about who can live the longest, it's the fact that both the child and the dog have an equal ability to feel fear and pain.

You pick whose loss will have the biggest impact surely not on who feels the most pain?

I don’t know, there have to be some values that are common to society, I would have thought respect for human life would be one of them. It’s all just illogical anyway - saying that a dog is equal to a human, yet being happy to use that dog for one’s own purposes as entertainment or for work, yet presumably not actually being in favour of slavery (which is what keeping a dog equates to really). Or saying humans shouldn’t take precedence over animals, but presumably you deflea your dog and feed it dead meat - so dogs take precedence over other animals?

@GlummyMcGlummerson

I did not at any point say I would be happy to see a child, or anyone for that matter, mauled by a wild animal. I was simply explaining how I don't value human life over animal life. That is not the same as saying I want to see harm come to anybody

You questioned wether killing an animal to save a child is the right thing to do. On a "well they shouldn't be In the enclosure" defence for letting the child die. What kind of person thinks twice about this?!

That's not the same as being happy to see a child mauled to death. Why would you say this, or say that I said this, when I didn't say this and you can see that I didn't say it? You did the same thing to that poster who said you cannot compare grief, accusing her of comparing your loss to the loss of a pet, when they only pointed out that comparing grief is not an appropriate thing to do.

What kind of person shoots an endangered species to save one single human animal? By all means, they should try and rescue the human animal and I would hope they would succeed, but I think it was wrong to shoot the non human animal. I don't see what's so radical about this.

I'm at a loss as to why anyone question this TBH

You can be at a loss. But I’m afraid you can’t make everyone feel like you. There are many, many things I have strong views about but I do have to accept that not everyone agrees with me.

I once knew a woman who loved her dogs more than her child, I felt so sorry for the poor boy because everything was always about the dogs. She showed them at Crufts and they were her life.

It was put to the test when she was involved a car accident, there was a fire and she ran out and got the dog out first and whilst she was doing that a passerby got her son out of the car.

What kind of person shoots an endangered species to save one single human animal?
Someone normal with a conscience presumably.

Though I don't think zoo workers are personally in a position to take the moral high ground when it comes to animal welfare. They hold wild animals captive for a livingS

@WhenISnappedAndFarted
So there is a real life scenario of this, bizarrely

My sister loves her dogs more than her kids, or she makes out she does. It's had a huge detrimental effect on her children. Imagine playing second fiddle from your parent to a pet

@GlummyMcGlummerson it is so incredibly sad to see, she'd always bring the dogs into the house when she was visiting and leave the boy on the drive on his own to play with his toys. I'd always go and play with him but he was so shy and withdrawn