Treating animals....like humans

[AClaire11]

I love my cats. They helped me through the crippling depression I experienced when I was suffering from infertility. They comfort my husband and I when we are sick. (One of them slept next to me the entire time I was recovering from surgery!). When I come home, they both run to the door to greet me and beg for me to pet them. We don’t view them as our children, but they’re a cherished and permanent part of our family.

 

[dedo]

Loving animals is good.

The problem with the world is that there is not enough love, not that there is the wrong kind of love.

Sometimes I think animals are here to teach us about how to be present, and how to love unconditionally. We should pay attention to the lesson,and apply in to our interaction with each other.

 

[crenfro]

I hate animals at times. Why? How on earth could I hate a puppy you may ask? Because for so many people, animals are literally treated like a human. It’s a sick perverted state of mind and it’s found all too often in our society.

Are you trying to say that you hate misguided priorities some people have, or do you really hate animals? Animals are innocents which God made and we are supposed to be stewards of all that God placed on this earth. Are you saying you dislike some of the creatures that God gave us to be stewards over? Just trying to clarify here…

Where do you guys stand? How attached are you to your own animals. Is it in line with your Catholic faith? Or do you spend an plethora of resources that could be going elsewhere treating your animal like a human? Through your own hurt in life by human beings, have you decided your family poodle is worthy of being treated like a child because “He would never hurt you”.

I have known some people who suffered from terrible depression, detoxing from alcoholism, whose pets literally saved their lives. But when I hear about some eccentric person leaving millions of dollars in their will to their dog or cat while neglecting their children I have a problem with this. Is this what you’re articulating? Only trying to understand.

 

[Hockeygurl]

Someone please tell me that the animals in videos that are welcoming home our veterans are not crying with happiness. You cannot tell me it’s “instinct”.

 

[Joelle_M]

Someone please tell me that the animals in videos that are welcoming home our veterans are not crying with happiness. You cannot tell me it’s “instinct”.

There’s no way it’s instinct. They whimper when sad, or happy, or in pain. I go away for work ever few weeks for a few days at a time and both of my German Shepherds greet me with wagging tails and whimpering/crying when I get back.

 

[Rosebud77]

OP why are you judging how others live please? Because you are…I know many folk who have been terribly abused and can only trust a critter, and I know many critters who have been terribly abused for whom a folk is a safe place. I have five cats and a dog, all rescues. One cat … she was saved from a farmer trying to bury her and her newborns alive…she is a wild thing but she is safe now… some people can never ever trust a person again. In their huge hurt they can find comfort and caring only in the simplicity of a pet… I am abed much of each day and sometimes when I am in pain, one of my cats will burrow under the covers and curl up in the curve if my belly and purr and it is a comfort we give each other. I know many who do prefer animals to people… not hard to see why. But each of us is different and we are told over and over not to judge. You are by the way missing a great deal by not seeing critters as they really are. Their simplicity… In my old age I eat little meat as life is so precious but I would never judge anyone who does and thinks differently. Please, try to see the love and beauty in critters…watch birds! I am blessed to be in Kerry and drive often to Killarney through the National Park and the sight of deer or wild goats delights and enchants, last week I stopped to watch a big horned nanny goat with tiny twin kids…smiling at the memory… Please try too not to look on the blackest side of humanity but at the goodness and kindness there is for critters. Blessings and peace to you!