Value of Human Life vs. Animal Life

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The thread that asked us to answer the hypothetical question of who would you save, a drowning stranger or your drowning pet dog, and the answers it generated got me to thinking…what do you think has caused the disconnect between humans? The teachings of Christ and of the Holy Mother Church are clear on this issue, and yet we all ‘hemmed and hawwed’ on the issue (myself included), either making jokes or throwing in issues of ‘what if I get sued?’ in order to muddy the water.

My question is why do you think people, in general, feel a closer attachment today to their family pet than they do to their neighbor? Why would asking this kind of question on a Catholic Answers website cause such a flurry of controversy?

I would be interested in your thoughts on this issue, understanding as I do that all generalizations, including this one, are false…and knowing my own personal story and my deep love for animals, and yet also knowing my committment to being an Obedient Daughter of the Holy Mother Church.
 
A misplaced affection. Caring for pets is much easier than caring for humans. Many feel unconditional love from their pet. They are less costly than children.

Some avoid human relationships because of the distress they often bring.
 
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LSK:
My question is why do you think people, in general, feel a closer attachment today to their family pet than they do to their neighbor? Why would asking this kind of question on a Catholic Answers website cause such a flurry of controversy?
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I haven’t read the thread you mention, but I will answer your first question. I think people do feel disconnected from their neighbor these days. I wouldn’t dream of touching a neighbor’s child, for fear of what could happen. Short of them about to fall into a fire, I won’t go near them. I’ve had unpleasant encounters. People want you away from their kids.

It’s like, when I was younger and saw a baby, I would oooh and ahh and maybe pick up the child, jangle some object, etc. Now, hands off, no one wants you to give the kid a cold or who knows what. It is hard to feel connected in this atmosphere.

Now, neighbors don’t invite you in. They won’t even answer the door if you knock.

BTW, people will let you pet their dogs.
 
I am reminded of a bumber sticker from many years ago:

"Be a Hero - Save a Whale;

Save a Baby - Go to Jail"

We can have respect fro the environment and animal kind without killing our own young. PAX
 
Good points…I think it is more than simply saying ‘misplaced affection’…though that is certainly what it is … I think it has been misplaced for a reason…out of fear. The fear that we will be sued, that we will be rejected, that we will be hurt somehow. Animals are relatively safe in terms of giving us unconditional love…and so you then read about people like the woman in San Francisco who locked her child in the basement rather than get rid of a dangerous pit bull, and seemed to blame the child when the child got out of the basement and was killed by the dog.

There is an overall feeling of lonliness in the world today. People need to be loved. They have turned away from the Lord, but they still have that fundamental need to LOVE…so they turn to a pet. Do you think this might have some bearing on it?
 
I believe that the “disposable” Unborn is the major cause of the hardening of our society.

Our young people can hardly have value for each other knowing that their brothers and sisters were discarded because they were ‘unwanted’, ‘unplanned’, concieved by parents who ‘lacked financial stability’, were ‘unmarried’ or just could not ‘deal’ with the idea of parenting. Mothers know and suufer from the lie that they have been sold about the killing of their children. Fathers are alienated because they have no voice in or they have coerced the killing of their children. Granparents have lost the only grandchildren some of them might have had. The effects and degradation of our world is immense and it has an affect that ripples throughout.

I actually heard a young woman state that she had to get an abortion because she was “not ready to be a mother and adoption was not an option because she would always worry that the adoptive parents might be abusive.” As if murder is not the ultimate form of abuse?

Just recently, a young woman in RCIA stated that if they were not financially able to care for a child they would abort. If you are financially able to have the child now but loose your job two years later, does that mean you can dispose of the child then?

Mother Teresa said that if you wanted to end war and social injustice work to end abortion first. It is the ultimate injustice and impacts all of society.

PAX
 
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YADA:
I believe that the “disposable” Unborn is the major cause of the hardening of our society.

Our young people can hardly have value for each other knowing that their brothers and sisters were discarded because they were ‘unwanted’, ‘unplanned’, concieved by parents who ‘lacked financial stability’, were ‘unmarried’ or just could not ‘deal’ with the idea of parenting. Mothers know and suufer from the lie that they have been sold about the killing of their children. Fathers are alienated because they have no voice in or they have coerced the killing of their children. Granparents have lost the only grandchildren some of them might have had. The effects and degradation of our world is immense and it has an affect that ripples throughout.

I actually heard a young woman state that she had to get an abortion because she was “not ready to be a mother and adoption was not an option because she would always worry that the adoptive parents might be abusive.” As if murder is not the ultimate form of abuse?

Just recently, a young woman in RCIA stated that if they were not financially able to care for a child they would abort. If you are financially able to have the child now but loose your job two years later, does that mean you can dispose of the child then?

Mother Teresa said that if you wanted to end war and social injustice work to end abortion first. It is the ultimate injustice and impacts all of society.

PAX
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An excellent, powerful post:thumbsup: Yes, as much as I love my dog, I would not put any human being above him.
 
Thanks for starting this thread, LSK. For those who didn’t see the original thread, here it is:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=81990

One theory that I’ve heard why people are valuing animals more than people – and even material possesions, more than people --is the decline in the appreciation and valuation of children in our culture after Roe v. Wade. When you can destroy a child in the womb, human life becomes as cheap as anything else you can easily dispose of. In the scenario given, it makes perfect sense that someone would favor saving the life of the dog you know and love (or even fret over the financial ramifications as some posters did) than save the life of a human who you don’t know and thus has no value to you. If you can kill a pre-born child in such a horrible procedure such as partial-birth abortion (which if you were caught doing to a dog would elicit screams from animals rights organizations), humans are no more valuable than anything else.
 
Part of the cause of the disconnect between humans is technology. Look at how the family lived before the radio, then before television, then before the Internet. When you spend more time with technology you spend less with people. Then there’s the telephone.

I have a letter written by my husband’s Grandma. It was written in the early part of the 20th century. She was so exited about an upcoming family friend’s visit. She hadn’t seen the person in ages, nor heard his voice. My Grandma used to show my photos of all her childhood neighbors. Not family, neighbors. I don’t have pix of my neighbors, do you have pix of yours?

Pets come with their own demands and needs, but you can put the pet in a cage when you go out, or drop it off at the shelter if it doesn’t work out. No lawyers, no alimony, no fights over shared property, no teacher conferences, no police.

About ten years ago I came across a lost toddler in a megastore. The boy was crying for his Mommy; we waited for Mom to show up. After a time I looked for clerks or guards, there were none to be found. So I took the child by his little, trusting hand and walked him up to Customer Service, telling him that I would get him back to Mommy. Yes, his Mom was at Customer Service (at least forty-five minutes and still no announcement over the PA, etc.). I handed him off to her, and saying “Here’s Mommy, we found her.” Boy oh boy if looks could kill I’d be in pushing up daisies right now; his Mom didn’t say even a thank-you but threw eye-daggers at me.

I think if I return a dog to its owner I’d get a thanks. :hmmm:
 
Many of the so-called animal rights people would yell and scream and call you a murderer over you having the nerve to eat a hamburger or wear a fur jacket. But many of these “Famous” people you see in these ridiclous “I rather wear nothing then wear fur parades” and support PETA are usally the same people who are pro-choice, and back the canidate that is for Abortion rights for women :ehh: , go figure, The same person that could not kill a lab mouse to possibly save a human life by finding a cure for cancer, would kill a unborn baby for embryontic stem cell research:hmmm: What a Lovely world we live in
 
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Fidelis:
Thanks for starting this thread, LSK. For those who didn’t see the original thread, here it is:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=81990

One theory that I’ve heard why people are valuing animals more than people – and even material possesions, more than people --is the decline in the appreciation and valuation of children in our culture after Roe v. Wade. When you can destroy a child in the womb, human life becomes as cheap as anything else you can easily dispose of. In the scenario given, it makes perfect sense that someone would favor saving the life of the dog you know and love (or even fret over the financial ramifications as some posters did) than save the life of a human who you don’t know and thus has no value to you. If you can kill a pre-born child in such a horrible procedure such as partial-birth abortion (which if you were caught doing to a dog would elicit screams from animals rights organizations), humans are no more valuable than anything else.
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It stands to reason that this could be part of the decline. I would venture that the increase in the use of artificial birth control - when we (men and women) began to regard each other as tools of pleasure and that was considered a form of ‘liberation’ if women could ‘do that too’. Until that time, men who were sexually promiscuous might have been portrayed in the media and books as ‘lady killers’ but they were not real men…the Church always knew the truth. Suddenly, women were being sold a lie - that being able to artificially prevent the conception of a child was a ‘liberating’ thing. This started the downward slide…human life began to lose its meaning in life.

And if, in a ‘family’ a child sees its parents break up and go through several partners, has to travel every other week between spouses to visit a parent and the only constant in its life is a dog or a cat who greets it with love, snuggles with it every night and plays with it whenever the child asks…is it no wonder that child will value the animal more than a person?
 
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