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friedmacguffins
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30 May 2012, 1:07 pm

Is there a(n apolitical) word or concept for having more empathy toward animals than people?



Greb
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30 May 2012, 1:15 pm

friedmacguffins wrote:
Is there a(n apolitical) word or concept for having more empathy toward animals than people?


Autism? :)



persian85033
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30 May 2012, 1:22 pm

I have more empathy for animals. I can read about things like the Russian Revolution or about Mengele's experiments perfectly fine, but when I read Animal Farm and The Island of Dr.Moreau. I almost cry. Same on tv. I can watch kids become orphans, even when they see their parents killed like on telenovelas or SVU, but I almost can't stand to see scenes like when the rhino calf is trying to get his mother whose been killed and dehorned by poachers to get up on Captain Planet in Horns A'Plenty.


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30 May 2012, 1:58 pm

<----Look at this trusting face.



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30 May 2012, 2:01 pm

persian85033 wrote:
I have more empathy for animals. I can read about things like the Russian Revolution or about Mengele's experiments perfectly fine, but when I read Animal Farm and The Island of Dr.Moreau. I almost cry. Same on tv. I can watch kids become orphans, even when they see their parents killed like on telenovelas or SVU, but I almost can't stand to see scenes like when the rhino calf is trying to get his mother whose been killed and dehorned by poachers to get up on Captain Planet in Horns A'Plenty.


I feel this way too. I have always gotten scorn from everyone for caring more about animals than I did people but this scorn just made me resent people even more. I support Peta and the ALF and people give me a laundry list of their faults and how they kill people. I'm like "Yeah, so? You do realise I don't give a flying f**k about people right?" And besides, people who blow up abortion clinics and kill abortion doctors are killing people too you know. I often get told that is okay becuase it is "innocent children" they are trying to protect. I know from expirence that children aren't so innocent and many are actualy lying, manulipitive, little phycopaths. Anyway, the point they are trying to get across is that people are supposedly superior to animals and the loss of an animal is better than the loss of a person. BS! Whenever people tell me that, I want to strangle them. Go ahead and call me sick in the head or whatever you want, but I actualy do value animal life over human life. But then, I always felt I was born the wrong species.


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techn0teen
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30 May 2012, 2:36 pm

I consider human beings animals, so I don't distinguish between humans and animals. I have empathy toward all forms of suffering, and I have the urge to reduce suffering in all forms of life.

Humans are sometimes harder to empathize with because they are endowed with a wonderful, extraordinary intellect in the animal kingdom. Yet, with that intellect, they tend to not use it wisely or to the benefit of themselves and others. So, when something bad does happen to them, I tend to think to myself "You saw that coming and yet you still did it."

Humans know better. Animals often do not.



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30 May 2012, 3:16 pm

MagicMeerkat wrote:
I feel this way too. I have always gotten scorn from everyone for caring more about animals than I did people but this scorn just made me resent people even more. I support Peta and the ALF and people give me a laundry list of their faults and how they kill people. I'm like "Yeah, so? You do realise I don't give a flying f**k about people right?" And besides, people who blow up abortion clinics and kill abortion doctors are killing people too you know. I often get told that is okay becuase it is "innocent children" they are trying to protect. I know from expirence that children aren't so innocent and many are actualy lying, manulipitive, little phycopaths. Anyway, the point they are trying to get across is that people are supposedly superior to animals and the loss of an animal is better than the loss of a person. BS! Whenever people tell me that, I want to strangle them. Go ahead and call me sick in the head or whatever you want, but I actualy do value animal life over human life. But then, I always felt I was born the wrong species.


I completely understand what you're saying. For the record, anyone who says the ALF has killed people is lying; in their 30-some years of operation as a movement the ALF has neither harmed or killed a single human being. The ARM, on the other hand, doesn't take up issue with killing or harming other humans to help animals. I can't really blame them, I have always had more empathy for animals. They're so innocent, so naive that there is an entire culture that is based off of their suffering and death and that they're part of a war where they're voiceless and unable to fight back. I support the ALF 100%. I don't believe the value of life is fixed; I don't think being a human automatically means you're superior and have more of a right to live than any other animal. We're all animals; and humans are not my favorite animal, they're probably my least.

I've always had special relationships with animals. I sometimes go to volunteer at an animal shelter a few hours away as it helps clear my head and no matter how difficult or rowdy a cat or a dog is, if I go in the room with them and shut the door, they calm down and lay down with their head on my lap or curl up into my arms. I've always been like this, even with strange dogs and wild animals. I've had wild birds follow me up the road for no particular reason, deers don't run away from me, they just stand and watch me( I live in a very rural area where deer are in my yard quite frequently, I am aware that the technical term is "deer" not "deers" but I find saying "deer" lumps them into one group and takes away their individuality) I remember walking into the monkey house at the zoo as a kid and all of the monkeys just going quiet and looking at me. I felt like we really understood each other, I wished I could have done something to help appease their sadness and boredom at the zoo and they knew my eyes were curious, not taunting. It makes me heart feel warm and I feel so secure and safe when there is an animal with me or if I'm near animals.



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30 May 2012, 3:18 pm

friedmacguffins wrote:
Is there a(n apolitical) word or concept for having more empathy toward animals than people?


I have to admit that I have always felt far more empathy for animals than for human beings. I can't even watch movies and documenteries about animals because I'm too afraid that something bad might happen to them and that is something I just cannot take.



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30 May 2012, 4:10 pm

I do much prefer the company of animals than to that of most people. I love moments of silent communion when an animal looks into my eyes and I feel this awesome connection. Can't do that with people. I remember walking on a nature trail with my SO, and there were these horses; they weren't exactly wild, but they just hang out there. This gorgeous black mare with white markings kept following me down the trail and ignoring everyone else there even though they kept trying to feed her. Then her little colt started following me too. I was so flattered!


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friedmacguffins
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30 May 2012, 5:25 pm

Has a term ever been devised for this?

It might also apply to a doll, I saw, which was meant to gently affirm an autistic child, without becoming too intense.

This is what I get from animals, when they're not in a state of alarm.



persian85033
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30 May 2012, 5:41 pm

MagicMeerkat wrote:
Anyway, the point they are trying to get across is that people are supposedly superior to animals and the loss of an animal is better than the loss of a person. BS! Whenever people tell me that, I want to strangle them. Go ahead and call me sick in the head or whatever you want, but I actualy do value animal life over human life. But then, I always felt I was born the wrong species.


I do agree with you. Most people would probably call me a misanthrope, but when you stop and see humanity as it really is, you see that there's relatively little good in people in general. People are most definitely not superior to other forms of life. As a matter of fact, I think the opposite. They're very inferior in every way. Just what's superior about needing a gun or something? That's not fair. If you're going to try to hunt or something, the odds should be fair. Just like predators have claws and teeth to kill their prey, so some prey animals have horns and hooves to defend themselves with.

Supposedly, when they killed the wolves in Yellowstone it was to protect the elk because the vicious, blood thirsty wolves were killing them. How did people kill the wolves? Setting them on fire, poisining them. But, of course, that's not savage, people are trying to save innocent animals. People not only have no respect for other forms of life, they even have no respect for each other! I mean, they fight so many wars and stuff. When have animals ever done such a thing? True, they will fight over territory or mates, but they try to avoid fighting if they can, especially if they're solitary predators. And when have animals kill for fun or to keep trophies or for monetary gain? I mean, in less than a century, the most dangerous predator, Man, has reduced many species to being critically endangered, with some only about some thirty individuals left in the entire world. I have an intense dislike for poachers and the sick people who buy stuff from them. Even predators don't kill for fun. Predators fulfill a very important role in their ecosystems. And since when have animals intentionally hurt others by polluting?


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friedmacguffins
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30 May 2012, 5:57 pm

The problem is that the victimhood complex applies to plants and minerals, which were once even alleged to have registered life signs on modified galvanometers.

That leaves us nothing more to eat.

I was hoping this wouldn't get political but will admit to my belief in the primacy of humankind.

This is not to say that I glory in sadism, so much as in stewardship, in which case, some humans are better than other humans, too.



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30 May 2012, 7:53 pm

I prefer some animals to some humans.
I prefer some humans to some animals.

Like a prior poster in this thread, I tend to take the view that humans are animals so I don't distinguish (although of course different behaviours and intellects etc of different species must be taken into account). I view each creature on an individual basis.



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30 May 2012, 7:59 pm

I've always had more empathy for animals. Humans have the ability to take care of themselves but animals depend on their owners for survival. In this world, there's maybe less than 10 people I actually feel empathy towards. I love animals though, especially wildlife. :P


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30 May 2012, 8:13 pm

I feel more for Animals I support World wide fund for nature and other animal groups then I would world vision.
Animals being killed by so called trophy hunters(I call them savages) angers me as does the barbaric fur trade.

I've always been fascinated by the Big Cats especially and it saddens me when they're killed just because they go to the villages in africa I think the villages shouldn't be allowed to encroach on the Animals' habitat in the first place.



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31 May 2012, 3:07 am

I've had a special relationship with birds all my life. If I could be one this second, hasta la vista baby.


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