Children or pets?

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mariam1976

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i was just watching tv and saw an ad on the screen for aspca… which takes care of abandoned pets… they looked really bad…
but as soon as i saw them, the faces of children in africa and india came to mind…

so when i have money i donate to them…

would u feel guilty that u could not take care of animals?
 
Children come first, but I support both. If it had to be one OR the other, the children would get my money, no question. The Catholic relief agencies get most of my donations, but I do give a bit to some of the animal welfare agencies. My best “donation” was the adoption fee for a kitten from the SPCA. I certainly couldn’t handle adopting a child at my age and in my state of life, but my kitty is my “baby” now! 🙂
 
I think God puts it into the hearts of certain people to take care of animails.

I figure if such people want to help animals by contributing to a (preferably local) group that does not directly hurt children (and I think there are some groups that do hurt children by promoting birth control and abortion, at least at the corporate level) then they should go ahead and contribute.

Obviously one’s one family and local Church should come first but when looking for additional causes to support I think God gives us a lot of room to chose.
 
I feel terrible for kids and for animals too. Of course children come first, but those poor animals need help too. If I could, I’d adopt as many children as possible and animals too, but my house already has a rescued dog 2 turtles and a frog people didn’t want and a bird my parents rejected after it killed their other bird…

I have donated to help children and animals, but lately, I can’t help. I have given some money to my parish and some to St Vincent de Paul, and Sunday to the Franciscan school to help out those in the path of priesthood, I know $10 is not much, but for me it’s a lot to give…

I wish I could help everyone… 😦 I’m not doing good financially (we’re about to go into foreclosure) but I know others are in worse situations than me, so I try to give as much as we could afford.

Sorry for derailing… I do feel guilty if I don’t help the animals, but as you can see, I’ve helped 5 already… if I keep helping, I’m going to end up with a zoo 😃 But of course I feel worse for not helping the kids…
 
Without a doubt, human life comes first (without regard to age). I don’t like that animals “suffer” but it pales in comparison to human suffering.

Here is my philosophy: I will help animals when I can, but not at the expense of helping people. Instead of giving some money to helping animals and some money to helping people, I will give it all to helping people every time. When human suffering ceases to exist, then I will give money to animals.

In the meantime, I will spay & neuter, adopt, and look out for animals when I can.
 
That’s the weirdest thing - I just saw that commercial today and thought of pretty much the same thing. Not necessarily the children in Africa, but when I saw the commercial I thought of how I could spend that money to help starving children instead, because they, of course, come first. Not to say that helping the ASPCA is in any way bad, but money going toward fellows humans in need is more important.
 
buckr02 said:
… when I saw the commercial I thought of how I could spend that money to help starving children instead…
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I often think that when I see commercials for all sorts of non-essentials, especially for the ones aimed at people’s vanity, like the ads for the plastic surgery clinics, the high-end beauty salons, and the luxury cars. The cost of even one Botox treatment could feed a hungry child in a third-world country for quite some time, and could pay one of my cats’ living expenses for an entire year!
 
Caesar517 said:
Without a doubt, human life comes first (without regard to age). I don’t like that animals “suffer” but it pales in comparison to human suffering.

Here is my philosophy: I will help animals when I can, but not at the expense of helping people. Instead of giving some money to helping animals and some money to helping people, I will give it all to helping people every time. When human suffering ceases to exist, then I will give money to animals.

In the meantime, I will spay & neuter, adopt, and look out for animals when I can.
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i feel the same way too although i feel the guilt everytime… 🙂
i love dogs becos of their unconditional love… i think the same way as you do that i will give to animals when human suffering ceases completely!! but that will never happen… but oh well…
 
CarrieH said:
I often think that when I see commercials for all sorts of non-essentials, especially for the ones aimed at people’s vanity, like the ads for the plastic surgery clinics, the high-end beauty salons, and the luxury cars. The cost of even one Botox treatment could feed a hungry child in a third-world country for quite some time, and could pay one of my cats’ living expenses for an entire year!
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Not to mention the millions being spent on the 2008 presidential election campaigns in the US. Everytime I hear about how much money candidates are spending I think to myself "if only that money could be applied where it would really help, we really could solve world hunger!😉
 
I DO take care of animals. I groom them! and I have adopted 2 from the shelter so I consider myself doing my part 🙂
 
I like animals, have even adopted two, and think it is a sin to treat them cruelly, but I give to people.

My husband was extremely attached to our dog, and when he became ill spent enormous amounts of money on what was an incurable situation. The Vet was the one who put a stop to it and told him the dog needed to be put down. My husband just could not let go. He did the same thing with our cat. Much of that money could have been given to charity (and we certainly could have used it too).

So I’ve made the decision to give to people, and we’ve decided not to get another animal because he becomes too emotional about them in an unhealthy way. That is just the way he is.🤷
 
CB_Catholic said:
I like animals, have even adopted two, and think it is a sin to treat them cruelly, but I give to people.

My husband was extremely attached to our dog, and when he became ill spent enormous amounts of money on what was an incurable situation.
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I’m sorry about your dog. :console: Sometimes, pursuing prolonged, aggressive veterinary treatment for a terminally-ill pet crosses the line into cruelty, IMO. I’m glad your vet put a stop to it when your husband wouldn’t let go. Our beloved pets don’t understand why they are in pain and why people are “doing things” to them; they only realize that they are suffering, and being poked, prodded, having medications shoved down their throats, etc. etc. I know how hard it is to say goodbye, because I had to put my dear old cat down last year after almost 16 years of wonderful companionship. But when their bad days outnumber their good days, it’s time. My boss used to be a professional dog-breeder, and he sums it up like this: “Better to put an animal down a day too soon than a day too late.” But that doesn’t make it any easier for those who get extremely attached to their “furry family members.” 😦
 
RandA said:
Not to mention the millions being spent on the 2008 presidential election campaigns in the US. Everytime I hear about how much money candidates are spending I think to myself "if only that money could be applied where it would really help, we really could solve world hunger!😉
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No kidding. Also with the war. It just goes to show you that we DO have the money in this country to help, but the government does not. How sad.

Also, if you are thinking about donating to charity such as these make sure you check check check them out - chose a good one as some are scams.
 
Whenever possible, I try to donate at the LOCAL level for both types of charities. Even some organizations that claim to help needy children are also pushing an agenda at odds with the Catholic faith (for example, they’re feeding children, but also advocating artificial birth control in third world countries.) Plus, as noted by a PP, a lot of them are scams.

So whenever I have a few spare dollars, I take a bag of dog chow to the local animal shelter or pay the fee to spay or neuter a dog or cat. And I urge friends and family members to adopt a shelter dog or cat rather than spend $700 on a purebred.

Our parish supports a food pantry for needy famiies (not just parishioners) in our area and we also donate food to a priest who makes several trips into Juarez, Mexico each month to distribute them to people living in cardboard shacks by the river.

Yes, we don’t have to go overseas to help the hungry. A sad commentary on one of the richest (if not THE richest) country in the world.
 
We could never afford another child but do have some extra time and money. However relatively speaking, pets are cheap and easy to adopt. We have adopted all of our dogs in order to give them a home, never bought one. Our current Dog is an older dog and was not a good candidate for addoption since most people are looking for puppies. We may be getting another some time soon, if my wife gets her way.
 
Just tonight on the local news, they were talking with someone from the Animal Rescue about how so many pets are winding up in the shelters because their families can no longer afford to care for them. I was tempted…but I’m not sure I could deal with another cat in this small condo of mine. The two cats I currently have are good buddies, and I’d hate to upset the balance, but still, I’m tempted…
 
We’ve had a discussion about adopting a child. You hear about all of these children living in poverty, broken homes, etc, etc. But it seems like it is so hard to adopt a child. I’ve heard figures around $20,000 to adopt plus long waiting periods, extensive background checks etc. Mean while we have a spare bedroom that is empty 11 of 12 months of the year and left overs at nearly every meal. I wish it was as easy to open our home to a child in need as it is to open it to a pet in need.
 
In some circumstances I have more sympathy for animals because they are so innocent. Humans were responsible for domesticating them, so I feel a responsibility for caring for ones that would otherwise have no one. It is inhumane to do otherwise IMO.
 
And humans aren’t responsible for creating human life?

I agree that we (humanity as a whole, I mean) are the ones who have put animals in some of these situations, but we are also the ones who have put the children (and adults) there!
 
Asillia said:
And humans aren’t responsible for creating human life?

I agree that we (humanity as a whole, I mean) are the ones who have put animals in some of these situations, but we are also the ones who have put the children (and adults) there!
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Animals and children are usually in bad situations because of the actions of others. That is not true of adults always.
 
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