Just because Dogs != People doesn’t mean that Dogs have no worth. Understand this, and you’ll understand why you’re wrong on this one.
I would value the life of my dog over many people I’ve met. Is that selfish? Maybe. Does it say a lot about what I think of some people? Certainly. But for me, at the least, it is true.
The point is that this situation was completely avoidable. If you think that dog was being aggressive, you are wrong. Look up a few videos of dogs being aggressive and you will see, by comparison, that this is not the case here. The dog was present, yes, the dog has the ability to inflict harm, but in the end the dog showed restraint where the police could not.
Think of it this way…both the police and the dog have animal instincts. Society has suppressed those instincts in people, and ownership usually suppresses the instincts in dogs. The officer that shot that dog lost their composure before the dog did. Imagine that…the dog maintained itself better than a trained officer. What does that say about the officer to you?
Yes, the owner was being stupid, but how on Earth does that justify a cop killing his beloved pet?
And for that matter…why the hell is everyone so afraid of dogs lately?
I have to admit, if I were that guy, I’d be looking for some revenge on that officer.
One would hope you’re smart enough to maintain control over your dog and avoid putting yourself in situations that may lead to its being shot, but statements like this one don’t exactly raise high hopes.
This sentence allows the vast majority of the reading public to dismiss your analysis of this situation.
For the vast majority of the population, I am confident that they value the life of any human over the life of any dog. Since you don’t, your opinion is relegated to the lunatic fringe.
Of course, I would never be in that situation to begin with, really. And I keep my dog in a harness whenever he is outside my house, on a retractable leash. The only time he is out of it is when he is in MY house. At a friend’s house he stays in the harness, with the leash off. My dog will jump on me when I get home - he is greeting me and I like it, so I haven’t trained him not to do it. It looked quite similar to what the dog in the video was doing before it got shot.
About a month ago the landlady let a few roofer’s into my apartment without my knowledge. I was mad about the possibility of people going through my personal belongings, or the possibility of them stealing something, but most upset at the idea that my dog might be harmed. Some people create situations with other people’s pets because they don’t like pets. I calmly admit now that if I had entered my bedroom and my dog wasn’t there I would have gone ape-shit and done some serious damage.
I personally wouldn’t be so confident about that. Any dog and any human? I betcha dollars to donuts most people would save their beloved pet dog than stop to help some bleeding gangbanger in the streets.
And here’s an old thread about dog vs human. I, of course, would choose to rescue the human in that situation. But reading through the replies, it’s hardly a “vast majority” that would. I haven’t tallied it up, but it’s about 50-50, maybe slightly in favor of the dog. Granted, you could say the SDMB leans lunatic, but in my personal experience, people are even crazier about their dogs IRL than they are here. At least here they seem to recognize that they’re not human.
Almost entirely non-sequitur, but I would just like to point out that it continually amuses me how political alignment (so often, but not always) tends to align with moral decisions, judgment calls, and what has value and what does not.
I can open a thread like this, read a name, and know exactly how they are going to reply, but I don’t obtain that information from their previous opinion(s) on dogs or anything related to them.
How is it not self evident that anyone who is asked to put their dog in the car, needs to ensure such is done in a fashion that the dog cannot get out of the car?
I am a dog owner, if my dog is annoying/interfering, and I put him in the car/bedroom/yard, I’d have to be all kinds of stupid to leave the window down, door open or gate open.
Every single thing that follows this choice is on the owner, to my mind. Cops make split second decisions often, they are certainly more experienced than I with such things. For this reason I am not willing to condemn their choice, in this situation.
Now that is a great debate waiting to happen: does the mere fact of being Homo sapiens mean you are more valuable, by definition, than any other creature?
I guess I am a lunatic, because my answer is “no fucking way”. I could provide a long list of specific people and of specific kinds of people that I consider far less worthy than any random dog you could point to, much less any random elephant, whale, ape, etc.
I didn’t watch the video, but given the pieces I was able to pick up in this thread, that’s my take-away, especially when you have a dog like that. I love rotties, but they are intimidating dogs. It should have been the owner’s job to secure and protect the dog. From the sounds of it, it doesn’t seem the dog did anything wrong, but the owner did. Unfortunately, the dog paid the ultimate price for the owner’s carelessness. Dogs like that make people jumpy, and I can’t blame the officers for reacting the way they did, even though there may have been less violent ways of dealing with it. They’re police officers, not experienced dog handlers.
And what, exactly, makes us better than animals? We don’t even necessarily know the purpose of life on earth, but clearly, clearly, humans are more important in regards to life.
It isn’t self loathing, it’s a little humility, Bob, and you could use some.
Look, I love animals. I really do. I think they’re amazing. I realize that we’re also an animal. But in this world of ours, there are systems and food chains and we happen to be at the top based on thousands and millions and billions of years of evolution. But if I had to kill 100 or 1000 or 10,000 dogs to save one human life - it wouldn’t take me more than 2 seconds to make that decision. Sorry Rover, sucks to be you.