# I pit people who care for 'cute' animals over human suffering (weak) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 8, 2007, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265 "2007-06-08T14:41:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/21 "2007-06-08T16:35:02Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] Why don’t you just commit suicide? [/QUOTE] Because he doesn’t want to give you any pleasure. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/22 "2007-06-08T16:40:45Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] Why don’t you just commit suicide? [/QUOTE] Wishing death on other posters is against the rules, **Cryptoderk** , as I’m sure you’re well aware. Given the number of warnings you’ve racked up in recent months, and your generally dickish tone lately, I think it’s time the mods had a discussion about what to do about you. Stay tuned. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/23 "2007-06-08T16:45:51Z")
The OP is a complete logical fallacy. I’m not sure what to call it…strawman perhaps? Appeal to emotion? Perhaps several. Think about it this way. Why help humans who need prostheses at all when there are children dying of cancer? ALL efforts, including the OP, that mention or address protheses are a WASTE of precious child cancer resources. tick…tick…tick. If at any time part of your brain went “wait a minute,” “but,” or “can’t we do both,” you’ll have to accept the concept that helping in one way does not rule out or supplant helping in another. It’s a foolish argument, but I hear it all the time. Logically down that path lies arguing over _which_ childhood cancer we’ll spend all our efforts on, since the one YOUR child has isn’t as bad as the one MY child has. And _screw_ Darfur! Helping an animal does not rule out or supplant helping a human. People who make that claim arouse my suspicion as to their ulterior motives. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/24 "2007-06-08T16:53:11Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] The OP is a complete logical fallacy. I’m not sure what to call it…strawman perhaps? Appeal to emotion? Perhaps several. Think about it this way. Why help humans who need prostheses at all when there are children dying of cancer? ALL efforts, including the OP, that mention or address protheses are a WASTE of precious child cancer resources. tick…tick…tick. If at any time part of your brain went “wait a minute,” “but,” or “can’t we do both,” you’ll have to accept the concept that helping in one way does not rule out or supplant helping in another. It’s a foolish argument, but I hear it all the time. Logically down that path lies arguing over _which_ childhood cancer we’ll spend all our efforts on, since the one YOUR child has isn’t as bad as the one MY child has. And _screw_ Darfur! Helping an animal does not rule out or supplant helping a human. People who make that claim arouse my suspicion as to their ulterior motives. Sailboat [/QUOTE] I agree ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/25 "2007-06-08T16:54:54Z")
[QUOTE=Pazu] - I do know a pathologist who started out in veterinary school, but he still had to go through the usual training in (human) medicine. [/QUOTE] Wow, that is alot of work, both animal and human pathology/medicine? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/26 "2007-06-08T17:00:52Z")
We could put every dollar, every effort, solely into human beings, and find that by so doing we’ve destroyed the world. I think it’s way more healthy to spread our interests out, to notice and attempt to assuage other, diverse problems. We don’t know what we might learn. ---
**Author:** ![Cryptoderk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cryptoderk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptoderk)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/27 "2007-06-08T17:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=Giraffe] Wishing death on other posters is against the rules, **Cryptoderk** , as I’m sure you’re well aware. Given the number of warnings you’ve racked up in recent months, and your generally dickish tone lately, I think it’s time the mods had a discussion about what to do about you. Stay tuned. [/QUOTE] That isn’t “wishing death”, I’m just taking their statement to a logical conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Cryptoderk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cryptoderk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cryptoderk)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/28 "2007-06-08T17:05:13Z")
[QUOTE=Giraffe] Wishing death on other posters is against the rules, **Cryptoderk** , as I’m sure you’re well aware. Given the number of warnings you’ve racked up in recent months, and your generally dickish tone lately, I think it’s time the mods had a discussion about what to do about you. Stay tuned. [/QUOTE] I must strongly protest. That isn’t “wishing death”, I’m just taking their statement to a logical conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/29 "2007-06-08T17:19:03Z")
[QUOTE=BoBettie] That’s exactly what I was going to say. Guess what? A lot of human prostetics and hardware were tried out first in animals. [/QUOTE] And we are l_ong_ overdue for a run of prosthetic human tails. ---
**Author:** ![Yaxche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@Yaxche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaxche)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/30 "2007-06-08T17:26:34Z")
Exactly, \Revenant Threshold\! From now on, all my prosthetic tails are going straight to Jerry’s Kids. Fuck the dolphins… ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/31 "2007-06-08T17:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] No there aren’t, we could easily cope with fifteen billion… and the population is starting to stablise anyway. [/QUOTE] Cite? > [@](#): > > Overpopulation warning are soooo 60s. Global cooling is very 70s… CFCs the worry in the 80s… Conservation in the 90s and now we have this Global warming nonsense. > > I wouldn’t worry about it. The fears of global cooling a minority of researchers entertained in the 1970s are waaaay over-exaggerated by people with an ulterior motive to reject global warming today. I was intensely interested in science in the 1970s and remember nothing at all about these fears…it was nothing like the consensus about global warming today. CFC worries in the 80s were timely – not a passing fad. Conservation is a timeless effort, don’t know what the 90s have to do with it. Overpopulation is indeed going to be a problem. The fact that other things have our attention right now doesn’t invalidate it as an issue. Every problem caused by humans is exacerbated by _more_ humans (and please note I am not saying humans _only_ cause problems without redeeming benefits). This criticism is a weak school of red herrings. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/32 "2007-06-08T17:31:41Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] I must strongly protest. That isn’t “wishing death”, I’m just taking their statement to a logical conclusion. [/QUOTE] I know that this poster has been a bit of a dick lately, so his statements tend to raise more eyebrows than others, but I gotta agree with him on this one. If he’d said, “You should commit suicide,” then I think you have a point. But **Sad and Deranged** said something rather, well, sad and deranged (imo), and **Cryptoderk** was just asking a question that comes to mind when reading the post referenced. ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/33 "2007-06-08T17:33:41Z")
[QUOTE=Don’t fight the hypothetical] Yeah, I heard that part. I think that’s what prompted this. I guess my question is why didn’t they put their resources to work for humans first? [/QUOTE] Frankly, an animal’s family **won’t** sue your ass off if things don’t work out. Any new procedure has risks and there may be mistakes. Animal models allow researchers to work out the kinks before using the same (or similar) procedure on a human. Mouse Maven: Mouse heart transplant tech, working with a pediatric cardiologist. ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/34 "2007-06-08T17:38:24Z")
[QUOTE=Mouse\_Maven] Frankly, an animal’s family **won’t** sue your ass off if things don’t work out. Any new procedure has risks and there may be mistakes. Animal models allow researchers to work out the kinks before using the same (or similar) procedure on a human. Mouse Maven: Mouse heart transplant tech, working with a pediatric cardiologist. [/QUOTE] I would love to do medical research. Are you an actual medical doctor, PhD or both? ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/35 "2007-06-08T17:41:24Z")
[QUOTE=BluePitbull] I would love to do medical research. Are you an actual medical doctor, PhD or both? [/QUOTE] None of the above. I’m a trained animal care technician. Most of my surgery and pathology skills were learned on the job. If you’d like more information, feel free to email me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/36 "2007-06-08T17:41:34Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] And we are l_ong_ overdue for a run of prosthetic human tails. [/QUOTE] Won’t anyone think of the folks with mermaid fetishes? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/37 "2007-06-08T17:53:04Z")
Revering and idolizing human life _at the expense of all other life_ is what inspires us to deforest the Amazon basin and replace it with McMansions, and overfish the oceans with dragnets. Revering and idolizing _all life without exception_ is what inspires us to wring our hands while an overpopulation of geese destroy a local park because their mountains of crap cause an algae bloom in the lake that destroys all other wildlife but we’re too paralyzed with compassion to do anything, or to destroy the earth with synthetics if we refuse to use renewable animal resources. There’s got to be a balance, but the OP isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/38 "2007-06-08T18:21:03Z")
[QUOTE=Giraffe] Wishing death on other posters is against the rules, **Cryptoderk** , as I’m sure you’re well aware. Given the number of warnings you’ve racked up in recent months, and your generally dickish tone lately, I think it’s time the mods had a discussion about what to do about you. Stay tuned. [/QUOTE] **Cryptoderk** can be a dick, no question, but that particular comment seemed like an appropriate response to the post in question. “Humans suck and we should all die!” “Uh, You first?” ---
**Author:** ![Sad\_and\_Deranged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Sad\_and\_Deranged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sad_and_Deranged)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/39 "2007-06-08T18:33:27Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] Why don’t you just commit suicide? [/QUOTE] To give you benefit of the doubt, and assume that you are asking this in all seriousness as in “If you hate humans, isn’t it contradictory that you, as a human, are still alive?” rather than a weasel way to be snarky, here’s your answer: Because like the rest of my species I’m an arrogant and egotistical enough to believe with about 65 years of my life left, I can do some good for animals I feel have a chance of surviving. And just because I hate humans doesn’t mean I think they _should_ be wiped off the earth. I just believe that will happen eventually. Whether it’s due to some idiot pressing a button to set off a nuke that destroys the planet (far fetched but not implausible) or destroy our environment bit by bit so that ten thousand years later we are so maladapted we can’t live in harmony with nature (my personal pet theory) or five billion years from now the sun has evolved to be a giant swell of gas that no longer gives off the appropriate amount of heat for earth to sustain life - it’s all the same… humans will not exist in ten billion years so I might as well enjoy these last 65 of mine. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265/40 "2007-06-08T19:02:26Z")
[QUOTE=Cryptoderk] No there aren’t, we could easily cope with fifteen billion… and the population is starting to stablise anyway. Overpopulation warning are soooo 60s. Global cooling is very 70s… CFCs the worry in the 80s… Conservation in the 90s and now we have this Global warming nonsense. I wouldn’t worry about it. [/QUOTE] You’re an idiot. Excuse me for not caring what you think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-people-who-care-for-cute-animals-over-human-suffering-weak/407265.md?page=3)