I have a peculiarity that I know others share and I’m wondering how many other Dopers would confess to it:
I am much less emotionally affected in seeing a human in some discomfort/distress/anguish than I am upon seeing an animal in similar circumstances.
For example, if I saw the aftermath of a traffic accident in which a person was lying on the side of the road, I would stop to help (if needed), do what needs to be done, then have a story to tell others.
If this were, say, a dog that had been hit by a car, it would be several days before my innards returned to baseline. My day, for sure, would be ruined. And I wouldn’t be able to muster up any energy (nor desire, for that matter) to relate the incident to anyone.
You couldn’t pay me enough to work in an animal hospital, an animal shelter or even a suburban veterinary clinic. But work with sick or injured people (even kids)? Yeah, I could do that.
mmm
I’m pretty much just like that. I have no problem treating people (or animals I guess) but I have a heck of an emotional problem seeing an animal in distress. People, not as much.
I think it’s partially the “innocence” factor and partially blocking the thought that something similar could happen to you. Do you feel the same way about babies/toddlers?
If a person gets hit, you can “protect yourself” by saying that it was somehow the person’s fault. They knew the dangers of walking near the road and should have been more careful. You wouldn’t get hit, because you would be more careful.
When an animal is hurt, there’s a general sense of “they didn’t know what they were doing” and they were all happy just being a dog/cat/whatever and whammo, down they went.
I used to cry my eyes out at those old war movies when the Cavalry or whatever would ride their horses into battle and the horses would get shot or run over a cliff or something. I was crying for the horses, not the men. The horses were innocent victims, just obeying their “masters” and doing their horse thing and next thing they’re diving off a cliff with a bullet in them. Stupid horse-riding war guys.
It depends on what, but yes. I could not read “Water for Elephants” because of the extreme cruelty to animals. I read books with elements of horror, rape, mutiliation, murder, amongst many other things, but all of that I can deal with - but hurt a harmless animal? No way. I also have trouble with reading books that harm children, so it’s an innocence thing for me, but even children can (usually) tell you what hurts. Animals can’t at all.
I used to watch a lot of old movies with my grandfather, and I hated those sorts of scenes. It wasn’t just the theatrical violence, there was also the fact that back in the day they had no regulations on animal safety. If they needed a horse to flip over, they just flipped it over. Now they have horses trained to fall in a safe yet realistic way.
I think that feeling more compassion for animals than people is probably pretty common. That’s why those ASPCA commercials work so well. Most people aren’t saddened enough by starving kids to grab their wallets, but pull a close-up on a dog in a cage and the money comes rolling in.
I’m majorly soft-hearted about animals (I’m even a vegetarian), but I haven’t contributed to an animal-based charity in years, aside from anonymously dropping cash in donation bins. My preferred charity for normal donations is Doctors Without Borders, which serves people in areas without access to proper medical care.
Why don’t I donate directly to animal charities? Because I know they’re going to send me photos/horror stories/both about abused animals, and I don’t want to deal with that. If one of the big national groups could honestly promise me a good-news-only version of their communications I’d cheer and happily fork over money.
I am the same as you! I even have to flick through the WSPA donkey and bear pictures you see in everyday magazines from time to time. I joined the RSPB because I figured that would be alright and it has been, I really enjoy their magazine.
I’ve given it some thought, and I don’t hold it against anyone or think that there is something wrong with them.
Regarding you, moldybread, enipla, and any others who rfeel this way, I think there is another “dimension” countering valuing people over nonhuman animals. As intelligent as certain animals, such as cats and dogs, can be, they typically have little or no idea what has happened to them. For instance, they cannot distinguish between being hit by a car in an accident from a deliberate, malicious act. How would they know, for instance, that this particular car would not return to hit them again?
They presumably have no idea that friendly folks may send for help. Or that the injuries sustained may perhaps be easily treated by a vet.
People usually understand what has happened to them, and have intelligence-based senses of hope.
The above can, of course, be nitpicked to death. For instance, sometimes people are just as lacking in awareness. Here is something else, though. Most of us, I think, and this includes myself, have a sentiment of animals as innocent.
To give an extreme illustration, the same person who was injured by a car might someday be in the same careless or culpable position to do the same. For all you know, he or she might be a murderer, or a spousal abuser. Beyond these ultimate examples, very few of us would be considered to have a saintly innocence.
Animals, however, are not usually judged morally at all. Certainly we do not consider a cat to have lost virtue when it devours its first mouse-ful. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) And once I learned the instinctive root of a cat “PLAYING” with its half-live food, I felt better about cats being supposedly mean.
Generally speaking, we do not ascribe moral judgment to animals. Hence “innocence” perceived and another “dimension” for greater sympathy.
I think for me it is the fact that the animals cannot reason, or they cannot be comforted by a stranger trying to help them. You can’t do anything about their fear, which is the worst part of their stress.
On the other hand, animals figure out pretty fast humans = help if they’ve been treated with respect in the past. When one of my horses was dying (intestinal torsion), he crawled under the electric fence to my neighbor’s house, since we were gone for the day. Luckily we returned before he passed, but he was headed for people because he thought they would help him.
One of my bitches would only whelp in my lap, not in the fancy whelping box we built for her. I would massage her and generally talk her through the whole process.
I think Trans Fat 0g nailed it best. The human can - assuming he’s conscious - intellectualize what has happened. He receives some level of sympathy from me, but because he is, at least to some extent, aware of the situation, I’m not gonna get all lily-livered about it.
But the look on a dog’s face who is in distress? Quick, someone fetch me a chair, a hanky and a shot of Jack.
mmm
Well, I’m sorry that you witnessed such an obscene level of unprovoked, unmitigated cruelty-- and sorrier for the pup. It obviously was beyond upsetting and I don’t blame you for being full of rage at the sight.
But most collisions involving canines with cars are accidents. Sometimes the most culpable party is the owner letting them go without a leash in a heavy-traffic city. I’ve seen this happen twice. Both times the dogs survived (very low speed collisions) and only in one case seemed to need treatment.
What you witnessed, significant as it is in its own right, has little bearing on my general point of animals not having human-level intelligence to understand what has just occurred to them, or to develop hope of a positive resolution.
I don’t know if I’m like that… at one time I could agree with you. In high school I worked at a veterinary clinic, and in the rural area I lived in at the time there was no humane society in the area, so people brought all sorts of suffering/abused animals and dropped them off at our vet clinic. There were puppies that people had chained up and forgotten about, when the puppy grew, the collar would grow into their neck. I saw hunting dogs that were basically sacks of broken bones after being beaten for being gun shy. Some dogs that had jumped from moving vehicles with bones poking out their legs, festering wounds with maggots. Starving animals…Those sorts of things are awful and emotionally disturbing. but…
Since then I have witnessed the suffering of a family in my church dealing with terminal cancer, seen a friend of a friend being notified of her husbands accidental death in a factory, and personally witnessed a person be severely injured in a head-on collision (thank god they survived–found that out while being interviewed later by their insurance company).
I hope I don’t come across as telling horror or war stories, and I didn’t know these people closely, but I would assume none of those people were innocent the way an animal is, but the human suffering probably bothered me more emotionally than seeing the animals suffer.
I’m not trying to say feeling either way is right or wrong… I just wanted to provide myself as a counter example, for whatever its worth.
I don’t know if I’m like that… at one time I could agree with you. In high school I worked at a veterinary clinic, and in the rural area I lived in at the time there was no humane society in the area, so people brought all sorts of suffering/abused animals and dropped them off at our vet clinic. There were puppies that people had chained up and forgotten about, when the puppy grew, the collar would grow into their neck. I saw hunting dogs that were basically sacks of broken bones after being beaten for being gun shy. Some dogs that had jumped from moving vehicles with bones poking out their legs, festering wounds with maggots. Starving animals…Those sorts of things are awful and emotionally disturbing. but…
Since then I have witnessed the suffering of a family in my church dealing with terminal cancer, seen a friend of a friend being notified of her husbands accidental death in a factory, and personally witnessed a person be severely injured in a head-on collision (thank god they survived–found that out while being interviewed later by their insurance company).
I hope I don’t come across as telling horror or war stories, and I didn’t know these people closely, but I would assume none of those people were innocent the way an animal is, but the human suffering probably bothered me more emotionally than seeing the animals suffer.
I’m not trying to say feeling either way is right or wrong… I just wanted to provide myself as a counter example, for whatever its worth.
Animals, baby humans and young people. Those are the living things which are most difficult for me to see suffer.
It’s a given to me that a mature adult has the ability to understand and accept sympathy and care and to seek it out.
If they’ve lived for any significant period of time they probably also understand the idea that bad things can happen anytime to anyone and be somewhat comforted about that unfortunate fact of life. A friend says “Pain is a given; suffering is optional.”
If they are reasonably well-adjusted they can also perceive the ways their behavior may have played a part in their problem, take responsibility for it and use the information to prevent further similar situations.
I’m a freakin’ wreck when it involves anything bad happening to animals.
I honestly thought that it was a little sign of sociopathy in me. Glad that’s not the case! Well, I may still have a little sociopathy, but fretting over animals isn’t a sign of it anyway!
I’m the opposite. I don’t like to see anything in pain, but human life and suffering is much more important to me than animal. I prefer the company of animals to that of humans, and I have three dogs and two cats who I love dearly, but they aren’t as important as a person.
I grew up in a farming community so I’m familiar with violent things like hunting, slaughtering, castration with no anesthesia, and the many other ways animals can be hurt and die. It certainly has an affect on me, but it’s just how life works.
I think your way of thinking, OP, is the product of a modern society outside of nature where death and pain is so much less a part of most people’s lives that you can afford to develop more emotional consideration for all animals, which you consider innocent and helpless. I would venture to say that this attitude is non-existent in any but very developed areas where we are surrounded by other humans. For me, human death can’t even be compared to animal death because we are aware of, and intensely fearful of, our mortality. Human physical suffering is also more intense for me because I have a great deal of empathy not only for what a person is going through, but the effect on their loved ones.
Example: I once saw a cat get killed by a car and die quickly, in great pain, in front of it’s owners. It was certainly very sad both for me and the owners (who loved that cat), but not something that so much as brought me to tears. I was glad the cat didn’t suffer more. The owners blamed themselves for letting him out, but I wouldn’t say it had a huge impact on their life.
Compared to the recent death in my social circle of a little boy who was horribly dragged to his death because his mother left the car in drive rather than park, it was nothing to me emotionally. Thinking of the pain that boy was in even for such a short time, and the devastating emotional effect on his mother and his whole family, which is going to have repercussions for all of their lifetimes, is keeping me awake at night.
Yeah, this is me. I’m not by any means immune to the suffering of humans (of any age) but animals (especially cats) in distress send me right over the edge. I have an extremely hard time watching animals suffer. I can’t even watch those commercials on late-night TV where they try to solicit donations for animal charities by showing images of sad-eyed kittens and puppies in distress. I have to change the channel.
To this day I am still haunted by an image that happened many years ago–my parents, spouse and I were driving down the freeway and saw a motor home parked on the side of the road with mechanical trouble. As we watched, the back door opened and a small dog/puppy rocketed out of the motorhome, freaked out, and darted into traffic. I was horrified to see the little dog immediately get hit by a car (I’m sure the car didn’t try to hit it–but traffic was going at 70 or so MPH and the little dog was fast) in full view of the family in the motorhome (including at least one kid). I wish so much that I hadn’t seen this.
I was able to watch the Youtube video with the woman putting the cat in the bin (but only after being assured that the cat was fine) but I can’t and won’t watch the one going around now with the teenage girl chucking squealing puppies into a river. I just simply can’t take animal suffering.
Stories of humans (even babies and little kids) suffering bad ends make me sad and upset me a lot, but the visceral emotional reaction isn’t nearly as intense as when I read the same thing about animals. I think the closest I’ve ever come with humans was the story of the little boy in England (James Bulger) a few years ago who was led off and tortured/murdered by two boys.
I wonder sometimes if I’m miswired. I would never want to see a baby or small child hurt or suffering, and would do whatever I could to help one if I could. But…I don’t know. Show me a kitten in distress and I’m just useless. Show me somebody hurting a kitten and…no, never mind, don’t. Because I don’t want to do something stupid and end up in jail.
Oddly enough, the scene in *Jurassic Park III *where the dinosaur ate the dog chained up in the suburban backyard didn’t bother me in the slightest–in fact, it amused me. Maybe because it was played a little bit for laughs and to tweak the whole “you can’t ever hurt the animal” thing.
