Child abuse VS Animal cruelty.

I know this is a touchy issue for some, so I will try and remain level headed.

Over the past few years (due to the advancement of social media) I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of animal cruelty posts/campaigns. Whether it be a picture of an emaciated dog, or a plea to bring an end to animal testing. Very admirable and just in my opinion.

But what concerns me is the lack of awareness, in comparison, to child abuse.

what prompted me to post was a picture I saw of a dog that had been (allegedly) savagely beaten, and had lost an eye. Abhorrent.

The comments that followed were a tirade of "I hope the people who did this die" and other equally angry, revenge ridden messages.

Then someone put, "An animals life is just as important as a humans".

Now. Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, I have to side with my own species here. Of course animal abuse is disgusting, I do not deny that.

But more money is given (in the UK at least) to animal charities than those for protecting children.

To me that is wrong. If it was a choice between a child dying, or an animal. I would choose the animal.

Now of course, posting these opinions on a picture of an injured animal was a ridiculously stupid thing to do, but the abuse I got was amazing. The contempt people have for their fellow man is astounding, but animals, well, they cant speak for themselves can they?

I just wish that my emails and news feeds were clogged up with children's charities more than animal charities, and whilst I totally understand peoples anger towards people who abuse animals, shouldn't we be more concerned for our own species?

And that is my question to you ATS.

I think people are desensitized. Speaking for myself anyway, growing up in this generation has jaded me to the horror of humanity. For some reason, animal abuse absolutely bothers me more than any kind of man on man abuse. More than likely because I see that it happens all day in every corner of the world.

I believe we are all equal on this planet. Whales to ants, we are all in the same boat, and some species have been here for exceptionally longer, while sustaining an equilibrium with the planet. That sounds better than going to the moon, to me.

a reply to: [post=18354177]Psychonautics[/post

I think you may be right about the desensitized thing. I walk down the street thinking, somewhere in this city, a child is being beaten because he's crying, and he's crying because he's hungry. That makes my heart ache. But I don't ever think "someone somewhere is drowning a kitten". I'm hard wired to care for my own species I guess. But it bothers me that some people are the other way round.

While I agree with your sentiment that people should be more outraged at child abuse than animal abuse 100%, I can not name one person I know personally who is not far more outraged by child abuse than they are by animal abuse. I think the only difference between the two is that people generally do not have pictures of abused children laying around just to share online. The times that we do see a case in the news there is a ton of outrage.

Think Casey Anthony, Susan Smith, Andrea Yeatts, etc. etc. when those hit the news people were outraged everywhere you looked. All three of the above received numerous death threats and I would hazard a guess that they still do.

Casey Anthony still can not show her face in public. While she was found not guilty, she will never have a life because people will be pissed off at her until she's in a body bag. Even then I am almost positive that they would have to keep where she is buried a secret to prevent those outraged at her acts to come for retribution even in death.

Child abuse is not shown on tv commercials and the like for the protection of the child as well. That in itself keeps a lot of this stuff out of the news... No news.... No outrage.

Again... I get your sentiment and both acts are sick beyond measure. But do you really know of anyone who would get pissed off at animal abuse only to turn around and be ok with child abuse??

There's just much more opportunity to express the anger concerning animals than it is concerning children. That's why it appears so uneven.

Of course that's just my opinion. YMMV

a reply to: Briles1207

In a perfect world we wouldn't need charities and people would be kind to each other and to animals. Cruelty shouldn't exist at all and we should all live and let live.

Instead, it is what it is and this is the world we live with.

I think people like to support what matters most to them and spend their money where they choose to. That means we shouldn't judge their choices by measuring the value of whatever charity they decide to support.

Animals, kids, lifeboats, homeless, cancer, hospices, blind, deaf, guide dogs, firemen, veterans etc. All good causes

Help for politicians, support your local hedge-fund manager or feed-a-bailiff are not-so-good charities and will never get a penny from me!!

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

I think it depends on where the children are from, the Casey Anthony case was close to home, so it was covered almost 24/7.

Child Abuse that happens through indiscriminate bombings in war zones, or children who are slaughtered by tax dollar funded moderate extremists, are just Collateral Damage in the eyes of the West.


Also I would suggest that 99.9% of the people who go all bat-sh_t crazy over abused animals are animal eaters.

a reply to: Briles1207
A couple of things with this , first the other day I am sure I heard on the news that vets are now on the lookout for abused animals as the abuser could also be responsible for domestic violence/child abuse.
Second this has been on my mind a bit lately and I find myself thinking humans are more important but then there is that song by Cat Stevens " I Love My Dog just as much as I love you " and I get that too , if I could bring it over from tube I would , not that good with links , if fact no idea lol . 1%

It's a matter of opinion. If there was a person and my dog in a burning house and I could only rescue one then it would be my dog 100 times out of 100

a reply to: Briles1207

There is nothing more horrible to me than mans treatment of his fellow man. But yes, I am desensitized to it a tad bit. I cannot fathom what makes some people decide to beat, kick, burn, torture, disfigure and maim any living creature. It is abhorrent and shameful.

As for "my species" above others...I would say that "my species" has not done a good job caring for it's host, the earth, nor does "my species" care for itself in a viable way. So I can't necessarily put my species above all others. Without the earthworm and the bees "my species" cannot cultivate enough food to feed itself. Without the lowliest of single cell life, my species cannot even digest it's own food efficiently.

But I do agree with you that it is abhorrent that child abuse and animal abuse are happening. And I understand your point...but it's easier to post photos of abused dogs than it is abused children.

ever see a cat torturing a bird ? they will do it for hours .
sea lions torturing sea birds . we call it playing
with your food .
well this is the way most predator's learn trying the wolf doesn't kill the raccoon she takes it to her pups brakes a lag or two so it cant run and watches wile the pups spend hours trying to kill it.
so don't go thinking animals are so different then us. If it had been the wolf that evolved intelligence the world would look the same .(well except those guys wouldn't need clothing and would be better looking then a hairless monkey

a reply to: Briles1207

Many of these "animal rights" institutions are money making ventures. Also, the people close to the top of many of these organizations foster a broader ideology that is about hating humanity, not loving animals. Some of these people have expressed views publicly that are tinted with sociopathy.

So these extreme views are disseminated to the public and over time it has become socially acceptable and even socially normal to express murderous outrage coupled with a dose of nearly mindless misanthropy over the abuse of an animal. This causes people to get that warm, fuzzy, self-righteous feeling that is so useful a manipulative tool for inducing the mob to behave in a certain way. People will then donate to these causes and buy those products that bring in money to these organizations. I believe that at this point there is a completely conscientious effort on the part of many of these organizations to work the public into a good frothing frenzy in order to milk them for money. It is social-engineering for profit.

Personally however, I would rather see the public throwing spittle over abuse of a puppy than a child. The reason for that is not because I hold animals in a higher regard, far from it, I am People First all the way. However, when that propensity for self-righteousness is directed toward child-abuse it turns into a witch-hunt and families are often disrupted needlessly where there is little to no actual abuse at all.

However, even in a dysfunctional home most kids will statistically stand a better chance of success then what they would have if they are thrown into the foster care system. Breaking up a family is traumatic and typically even more disruptive to the normal development of a child than an alcoholic or even drug addicted parent. There are different levels of abuse and neglect and our current system does not weigh the potential trauma to the individual child very well. The carte-blanche answer is to jerk the child from their parents, or if they are an adolescent or approaching adolescence dump them in juvenile detention centers. Many of the latter these days are privately owned which brings us into the whole financial incentive aspect that colors our approach to child abuse from the social services layer to the judicial one.

In part because of these corruptive aspects, children can be taken from their parents on some hearsay and a messy house (I'm not talking about feces on the floor squalor, I am talking about a basket of laundry, and a full kitchen sink). There is little motivation and even fewer resources or incentives to train people involved to assist families and make them stronger. Instead, they just remove the children from the home, (which is supposed to somehow, magically make it better for the child), pat themselves on the back for a job well done, get their government money for placing a child (especially if they can say "special needs") and move on to the next.

Compassion is a worthy attribute, but compassion not tempered by reason is one of the most dangerous forces within the human condition.

Although its not very pleasant that is nature and im happy for nature to take its course,yesterday while digging a hole at work i found what looked like a rat or mouse nest with 2 little pink critters inside,one of my workmates said we should kill them but i bundled the nest together and left them close to the hole when i returned the next day they had disappeared so either something ate them or the mother came back and found them,I let nature deal with the problem.

I find it sickening when people abuse animals because it is senseless and they dont have the power to fight back,as for child abuse its not exactly something that i come across so its not something that i think about.

I'll save an animal before I'll save a human. Humans have done nothing but abuse me all my life.

originally posted by: muse7
It's a matter of opinion. If there was a person and my dog in a burning house and I could only rescue one then it would be my dog 100 times out of 100

Am I the only one that thinks thats kinda messed up?
Of course I would throw a dog into a burning house to rescue a human...

a reply to: my1percent

I have worked in the Veterinary field of emergency medicine
since 1995. Any time an abused animal was brought in to the
ER we had to file a report with the local PD because people who
abuse animals almost always abuse people especially children.

The PD will follow up on the case. Here's one example in reverse....
a woman was filing for divorce because she was tired of being abused
by her husband...he got angry & cut off the dogs nose.

We were able to save the dog & he was brought up on many charges
of abuse & etc. The case actually made the news. It was many years ago.

Cheers
Ektar

I dislike both things equally, but personally like animals more than people.... So there's that.

I don't understand how a person could beat an animal or a child, and I feel the worse for animals and small children.
The way I see it is that small children and animals can't really protect themselves. Small children can't defend themselves or give themselves what they need... And animals are just loyal. So loyal. Watch a few episodes of Animal Police or Pitbulls and Paroles, and tell me differently. If you do, you're lying.

I grew up in an abusive household. At one point my mom lost all custody of me because of an injury I got while under her care. Custody was given to my biological dad. I don't remember much from then, I was like... Two. My mom was able to gain custody back, and abuse continued. She hooked up with abusive people, she would be aggravated with it, and would take it out on myself and my younger siblings. So we got it from all angles. In a way, I wish someone had stepped in for us, but in other ways I don't. One reasoning for this is because sometimes foster care is worse than the home they came from. I do think that more awareness should be raised for child abuse, but I'm not really sure of what it would do. There's not much that would happen because you can't really keep someone from beating their kid.