When I was married, I was the main food feeder. While our dogs did love everybody in the family, I was clearly the choice lap when everybody was in the living room watching TV.
Also, when it was thundering out and the dogs needed comfort, I was the first guy they’d come too.
I don’t know if this means they loved me more by just a smidgen or if they just saw me as the pack leader.
There was a contest to vote for a charity to get some money from a snack food company. I was voting for a charity to fund a clinic to provide medical care for homeless people. It never cracked the top ten it needed to get money, but 4-5 of the spots were held by animal shelters. That’s my anecdote to back up the claim that attitudes in the OP exist.
People give donations to organizations with good outreach and awareness-raising. I help organize the charity fairs at my workplace. Guess which charities are the first to knock down our door when we send out invitations? The humane society, the local therapy dog group, and the K-9 squad. My coworkers LOVE these charities because they always bring animals with them. If we don’t have animals at the charity fair, no one comes.
Almost just as popular is anything related to breast cancer or veterans. Last year we invited a non-profit that runs a diaper bank. Hardly anyone visited that booth because there weren’t any fashionable “diaper bank” ribbons to pin on your shirt. No one visited the booth for the stream restoration non-profit either, and we’re an environmental agency. We’re supposed to care about that kind of stuff.
If it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself that rescuing animals also helps humans. Rescued pets become companions for people who may not have anyone else. They can be trained to become therapy dogs. Animal shelters provide valuable jobs and volunteer opportunities. My sister the veterinarian was introduced to animal medicine as a volunteer at a humane society. They also enable people who cannot afford to care for their pets to make the smart decision and turn them over to someone else, rather than clinging to them to their own detriment (and that of their children).
Since so many people don’t give to charity at all, it takes a special person to bash someone who does.
You mean “sponsor” a child? Don’t those programs have fairly hefty overheads? Seems pretty wasteful to me…
Then again, it’s your money. Personally, I don’t see animal rescue as a waste of money. Dogs and cats in particular are really awesome, IMO…it’s rewarding to interact with another species on that level. Oh, and the people I’ve encountered through my involvement with animal rescue are rather kickass too. 
I give to various people charities as well.
This is just bizarre. I don’t have kids, but my sister does. I assure you her one child, in the three years he’s been alive, has cost much more than every animal I’ve ever had, and I have four horses, along with dogs and cats. I do spend hours and hours with my pets, because they’re at home with me, and I spend lots of time at home. They’re good, non-demanding company. It’s a feature, not a bug. I’m not sure what the life span has to do with anything.
Didn’t know I was at a board with so many psychics. Must be the case, though. Otherwise, there is no way you all could be describing the emotional responses and internal lives of your pets. Anthropomorphization. Learn what it is. Avoid it.
Visit some of the gun and hunting-centric boards out there next time you have a couple minutes. There, you will find legions of armed hoopies who go on at length about how they would let whole nations burn to save ol’ Duke.
As soon as someone does that, I’ll direct them to your post.
And I definitely agree with your point about outreach being the most important. Another class of successful charities in the competitions were schools asking for band uniforms/gym equipment/etc. I always figured those did well since there was already a large, interested voting base.
What college can I send my dog to?
And yeah I’d save **my **dog over a stranger. I’d also save **my **friend over a stranger. You’re a stranger, I don’t care about you. I care about who I know. But it’s a stupid question anyway since that kind of situation never happens.
If you weren’t intending to bash people donating to animal-related charities, why even mention it?
This was people voting which charities got the snack food company’s money, not people donating money. People early in the thread doubted there were people that cared more about animals and people, I was providing evidence that such people existed.
so I didn’t bash people who didn’t give to charity.
That’s not evidence of people caring more about animals than people. That’s only evidence that animal charities have more “name brand” recognition than people charities. And one reason for this is that most people have pets.
I have a book that contains over 500 charities that my coworkers can donate to through workplace giving. Every year, the same handful of charities get everyone’s money. Why? Because everyone’s heard of the Red Cross and United Way and YMCA. No one has heard of St. Anthony’s Wayward Home for Lost Boys.
My parents had 7 children survive.
He always said he was his most important charity.
I baby the heck out of my dog and spend loads on food and medical care for her. And beds, treats, toys, grooming, even obedience classes.
But being that dogs don’t need diapers, baby clothes, car seats, baby gear or formula…I can absofuckinglutely guarantee you that I have spent less on my dog in 12 years than my brother has spent on his kid in 2 years.
I actually agree that there is a disconnect between being childfree by choice but babying a pet. I cannot wrap my head around the idea of ever wanting a child but I treat my pet as a child. I think it’s weird that I am so turned off by the idea of someone calling me “mommy” but I call myself my dog’s “mommy.”
But it is different, and it is cheaper, and it is easier than having a kid.
And really we don’t “get to” replace our pets after 10-15 years. That’s really fucking crass, man.
Nevermind dogs and cats. Some people don’t even care to engage in their own OP’s.
It also misses the point of why people have pets. People have kids for multiple reasons. But they don’t generally have kids for companionship. If someone confessed to having a kid for this purpose, we’d all think they were nuts. You shouldn’t bring someone in the world just to satisfy your own emotional needs.
But pets are a different matter. I brought my cats home not so that I can propagate my genes and leave behind a legacy, but so that I can have little furry playmates when I come home from a long day at work. Children are not good playmates for someone that doesn’t really like being around kids. But animals are not kids. They are totally different from kids.
Incubus is doing the same thing many of the people in this thread accuse pet-lovers of doing–equating kids to animals. If someone thinks I’d make a good mother just because I’m a cat-lover, I have to wonder if that person really understands how much responsibility goes into being a good parent.
anecdote from NC: local community pool needs to add steps to one end of the pool so elderly can get in and out of the water, the ladders being too much of a challenge.
Money sources for this are taxes and grants. There is no support in the local commissioner body for spending money on the public pool. If someone wants a decent facility, they can join one of the privately organized pools.
So, the Parks department applied for a ‘dog park’ grant, expecting that after they put up the fence for the ‘dog park’, there will be money left over for the steps. The ‘dog park’ is almost a shoo-in in this part of the world, because people love to be able to take their animals somewhere where they can run off-leash. That doesn’t happen in their gated communities with their private pools, so they want to use public land for the dog run. If there is a surplus of $4000 in the $25000 grant, they won’t mind, apparently, if the money is spent on the pool.