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

@isabellanova1
To all the posters who automatically value the lives of other humans over non human animals? Do you also value the lives of people who belong to the same race, sex, religion as worth more than those who don't? If you do, then you're a pretty shitty person, to both the animals and humans
Valuing humans over animals has got nothing at all to do with racism / sexism / etc. Do you honestly think ever meat eating human is secretly a bigot? Or the police officer who shoots a dog mauling a baby to death is looking for someone of a different race to shoot next? Or the Mom who kills a spider because her child is scared of them out a way because their child is allergic to them?

Yes of course, everyone bar vegans are awful people who secretly hate everyone

One of my children is all skin and bones, he wouldn't make a good meal. The other two are all fat, again not a great lunch. I'd say the dog, send the eldest hunting for squirrels and make the fat kids dig for grubs

I'd have said yanbu, before I had ds. I love my pets more than most people, but with ds it's love on another level again.

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@isabellanova1
To all the posters who automatically value the lives of other humans over non human animals? Do you also value the lives of people who belong to the same race, sex, religion as worth more than those who don't? If you do, then you're a pretty shitty person, to both the animals and humans
Valuing humans over animals has got nothing at all to do with racism / sexism / etc. Do you honestly think ever meat eating human is secretly a bigot? Or the police officer who shoots a dog mauling a baby to death is looking for someone of a different race to shoot next? Or the Mom who kills a spider because her child is scared of them out a way because their child is allergic to them?

Yes of course, everyone bar vegans are awful people who secretly hate everyone[/quote]
'As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.' - Pythagoras

If we could teach our children that everyone is equal, regardless of shape, size and colour, then perhaps we wouldn't be so cruel to each-other. It feels like people are happy to pay lip service to how discrimination is wrong, they go on the Black Lives Matter protests and buy the t-shirt, but nobody is prepared to look at the root cause of such evil. Where do you think racism comes from? Every form of discrimination can be traced back to our hatred for what we deem as the 'other'.

If you buy into the theory that every life on the planet is entirely equal regardless of the species. Does that mean if you accidentally tread on an ant and kill it you would feel exactly the same as if you accidentally ran over a human toddler and killed them?

Again, some people have a very strong connection with an animal, and some people don’t love their children.

However, nobody would get a pet if they thought it’s inevitable loss would be comparable to the loss of a child. To suggest they would is offensive.

Not even close.

I love my dog in a cute, gentle cuddly way. She's adorable, she makes me laugh. I pander to her constantly, I have lots of snuggles, she's my little baby and life without her would be very sad.

I feel the fiercest, strongest, protective Mamma Bear love for my son. If anyone fucked with my child, I'd gouge their bloody eyes out with my bare hands. Life without him would be completely unthinkable. It's a completely different level of emotion that's beyond any rational control. I think it's an evolutionary thing. We are (mostly) programmed to nurture our offspring so that they don't starve or get carried off by predators.

That said, I'm still tempted to stick DS on gumtree some days....

Yes @isabellanova1 of course we're all bigots but you. Shooting dead an animal that is about to kill a baby is all about how here just a boiling vat of rage at anyone who doesn't look, sounds and act like us.

There were lots of criticism of the parents and the zoo for the shooting of the animal, for the kid being able to get in, for the kid being loose. But I don't honestly know anyone in real life who think that the sensible thing would be too just let him kill and eat the kid and then let the parents have back anything he leaves. Or to let a dog rip a child apart because it doesn't respond to "put down the baby"

And where do you draw the line? Ok a dog is known to have emotions and we make given them human attributes but if you had to kill a wasp or let it sting someone and cause severe anaphalaxsis, is that wrong? If you accidentally run over a wild animal I'm the road would it honestly feel the same as killing a human?
Unless there's massive human related trauma in your life, and I wouldn't expect you to answer that, well I think it's a very odd way to view life.

@MessAllOver

If you were stuck on a desert island, would you eat your dog or your child first?

To all the posters who automatically value the lives of other humans over non human animals? Do you also value the lives of people who belong to the same race, sex, religion as worth more than those who don't? If you do, then you're a pretty shitty person, to both the animals and humans.

I’m a vegan too and I think this is a mental comparison to draw. I think it’s inherently wrong to exploit animals simply because they are animals, but that doesn’t mean I think all animals (including humans) have the same value. I’m vegan for compassionate reasons and it’s compassion that would lead me to protect a human life over an animal life - because I understand that humans have far greater capacity for love and understanding loss than animals, and therefore the loss of a human would almost always cause more grief to their human relatives than the loss of an animal would to its animal relatives (or human owners).

That doesn’t mean I think it’s ok to kill animals. I think that should be avoided in so far as possible.

I have pets who I love very dearly. I lost a dog eight years ago and I had to have several sessions about the loss with my therapist to come to terms with it. Even now I cry easily thinking about her. I loved her fiercely and completely. I have two cats now who I similarly adore. I would be devastated by their loss.

But it’s nothing - nothing at all - compared to the love I have for my son. There is so much other complicated emotion involved in your feelings for your own children. The sense of responsibility you have to them, the feeling that (when they’re babies) they’re a part of you existing outside of your body, the biological instinct to protect and nurture. I am fundamentally changed as a person by the birth of my baby; every priority and characteristic I have is coloured by the fact of being his mother.

When my cats die, I will be heartbroken. I may well need to discuss it with my therapist. It will take me a long time to get over it and feel happy again. But if my son died I would simply never get over it. I would find a way, eventually, to move on and live my life but I would never be over the loss.

Dogs are less complicated and sometimes I prefer them to my own teen children! But if it was a choice between them both then my children the my children come first always. I love my dog as if she was another family member and we all adore her but if it came to it she would be at the bottom of the pecking order.

@formerbabe

If you buy into the theory that every life on the planet is entirely equal regardless of the species. Does that mean if you accidentally tread on an ant and kill it you would feel exactly the same as if you accidentally ran over a human toddler and killed them?

Stop with the logic formerbabe you will upset people's cognitive dissonance!

The competitive love and grief continues I see. 🙄