I feel more about people suffering than animals but only if I really see the people and the animals. I ought to feel more about 50 dead in Iraq then a local teen dying in a car crash, but the reverse is true. Thus the dead dog hits me hared than the starving in Africa. It's a wiring problem. Photos, and personal stories help make tragedy far away more real. The greatest moral instruments of modern times are the camera and the internet.

Very true. It is a sad loss.

(June 22, 2015 at 8:26 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: I get all messed up even when watching fictional TV shows and movies.  When I see a horse fall on it's side, I cry every time.  Once, I saw a squirrel crawling across the road; half of it had been run over by a car (this was years ago, and I'm getting choked up thinking about it), so I called an animal rescue and stayed with it until they came.  Another time, I came across a seagull that had been hit by a car, caught it in a wine box (luckily there was a liquor next door), and drove an hour to meet a seagull rescue lady.  I asked her to keep me posted, but she said she was just going to put Stanley (I named him Stanley) down.  I cried for two days.

I don't know why, but I'm not the same with people.  Sure, I have empathy, and I'm sad when people are suffering; I just don't have the gut-wrenching mortification that happens deep down that I do for animals.

I'm the same way, and I have a theory for this.

I think it's because I see humans as being on the top of the food chain, and animals as being weaker. It's like seeing a child suffer verses an adult suffer. They're both horrible, but seeing it happen to a child seems all the more sad because children are weaker, more defenseless, and more innocent than a fully grown person. I feel like we have a certain instinctive duty to protect those weaker than us, and to me, animals fall into that category.

(June 22, 2015 at 8:50 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:

(June 22, 2015 at 8:26 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: I get all messed up even when watching fictional TV shows and movies.  When I see a horse fall on it's side, I cry every time.  Once, I saw a squirrel crawling across the road; half of it had been run over by a car (this was years ago, and I'm getting choked up thinking about it), so I called an animal rescue and stayed with it until they came.  Another time, I came across a seagull that had been hit by a car, caught it in a wine box (luckily there was a liquor next door), and drove an hour to meet a seagull rescue lady.  I asked her to keep me posted, but she said she was just going to put Stanley (I named him Stanley) down.  I cried for two days.

I don't know why, but I'm not the same with people.  Sure, I have empathy, and I'm sad when people are suffering; I just don't have the gut-wrenching mortification that happens deep down that I do for animals.

I'm the same way, and I have a theory for this.

I think it's because I see humans as being on the top of the food chain, and animals as being weaker. It's like seeing a child suffer verses an adult suffer. They're both horrible, but seeing it happen to a child seems all the more sad because children are weaker, more defenseless, and more innocent than a fully grown person. I feel like we have a certain instinctive duty to protect those weaker than us, and to me, animals fall into that category.

My thinking is similar, but I don't think it's because animals are "weaker", necessarily, rather that is' just hard to communicate with animals. I can ask a person, "what hurts?" With an animal, it's way harder; same with children: their communication skills aren't honed. Some of it has to do with weakness too though, for sure.

(June 22, 2015 at 8:58 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote:

(June 22, 2015 at 8:50 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I'm the same way, and I have a theory for this.

I think it's because I see humans as being on the top of the food chain, and animals as being weaker. It's like seeing a child suffer verses an adult suffer. They're both horrible, but seeing it happen to a child seems all the more sad because children are weaker, more defenseless, and more innocent than a fully grown person. I feel like we have a certain instinctive duty to protect those weaker than us, and to me, animals fall into that category.

My thinking is similar, but I don't think it's because animals are "weaker", necessarily, rather that is' just hard to communicate with animals.  I can ask a person, "what hurts?" With an animal, it's way harder; same with children: their communication skills aren't honed.  Some of it has to do with weakness too though, for sure.

Yes, that too.

None of you wouldn't have survived long in the OT times. God expects animals to be sacrificed to him. He finds the aroma pleasing.

Yes, but we live in a time after the Enlightenment (though you certainly couldn't tell in some parts of the world). The wants and needs of a deity that likely doesn't exist have no meaning or relevance to many of us.

(June 22, 2015 at 4:12 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I'm empathetic.

Fixed that for you.

Empathy sure as hell isn't something to be ashamed of. NOT having it is another matter.

I'm feeling ok now. I couldn't stop crying when I came home and made this thread. People need to be careful on the road. It's not that hard to not hit a cat on a 35 mph residential road.