[JamesP]

Do we love all of the animals equally?

or do we feel hostile toward aggressive, predator beasts who will eat us and our young?


Infant Fatally Mauled By Rottweiler

POSTED: 7:31 am EDT September 13, 2007
UPDATED: 7:40 pm EDT September 13, 2007


WARREN, Mich. -- A 4-month-old has died after being mauled by a rottweiler at
her grandmother's house.

Police found 4-month-old Lylie Cox on Wednesday inside a home in the 3700 block
of Toepfer Road near 8 Mile and Ryan roads.

They said the infant's 17-year-old mother had stepped away to warm a bottle of
formula.

The rottweiler, which was visiting the home with its 19-year-old owner, somehow
got loose and attacked the baby.

Witnesses said the dog bit the baby in the head.

"This dog appeared out of nowhere. It was a large rottweiler, probably 140
pounds," said Dan Anderson, who is the homeowner's brother-in-law.


According to police, the dog had a history of attacking people.

[-V-]

Do we love all of the animals equally?

yes, but we shouldn't breed any of them, especially ones that like to use baby heads as a chew toy.

[JamesP]

Cute L'il Doggie
Nobody's fault

Horrific attack by beloved dog stuns family
John Faherty
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 7, 2007 12:00 AM

Tori Whitehurst loved her dog, Cane. She played with him constantly, and he slept in her room every night.

Tori was killed Monday afternoon when the family pet, an American bulldog, attacked her in the family's backyard.

On Monday afternoon, Tori and her sister were playing in the backyard with Cane plus three small dogs the Whitehursts were watching for Ian's father who was recently injured in a motorcycle accident.

When the family's nanny went into the house to get the girls' shoes, Cane attacked Tori.

The nanny screamed for the dog to let go.

She tried to pull him off. She stabbed him with scissors and hit him with a pool cue. But nothing worked.

"She feels terrible," Ian (baby's father) said of the nanny. "She doesn't deserve this. It's not her fault. It's nobody's fault. It just happened."

After receiving a 911 call from the nanny, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrived at the home north of Happy Valley Road.

They had to shoot the dog in order to get to Tori because the animal was still acting aggressively.

Cane, a 2-year-old male, was the family's second American bulldog.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Humane Society said Cane was brought into one of their facilities in March. Cane's foster family described him as a "snuggle bug" and said "he is the sweetest dog ever," the organization said.

The study also stated that, each year, 4.7 million Americans are bitten by dogs. These bites result in approximately 16 fatalities.

-----------------------------

It's so nice that we love all the little furry animals equally
and that we let them eat us.
and that "it's nobody's fault".

[-V-]

If your point is that some breeds should not be pets that would at least be something for discussion. But citing dog attacks per year??? as support for what? legislation outlawing the rights of people to have any pets except rabbits? (have you never seen that rabbit from Monty Python And The Holy Grail? That rabbit "will do you a turn" too!)

What are the people attacks per year?, bird attacks?, elephant attacks? poison ivey? LIVING THINGS ATTACK out of fear, self preservation, etc.. Some because they were abused themselves -- some because of disease or a defective brain (like the one they put in the Frankenstein monster). Why don't you look up the statistic for how man human beings are rescued, aided, or whose lives are comforted and extended by their companion animals every year!!!

[-V-]

They don't love us - they just like to eat and be taken care of. They love whoever feeds them.

naive human.

first of all, we should love all animals (and people) equally because is there a rule that says that only those who "love me" are worthy of my love, affection, and consideration? it's sad that most people do live by that equation, and it is at the heart of what is wrong with the world

second, you might say that your child loves you because you feed them, tend to their physical and emotional wounds, etc.. Sure your child has the additional ability to laugh at your jokes or see you as a softball hero, etc.. but does their ability to love those things about you, in turn make them more worthy?

just as with human mother's, animal mothers are chemically induced to "love" their child because it is necessary for the perpetuation of the species. LOVE is a survival mechanism and reproductive tactic in animals with 4 legs as well as 2. But cases of animals starving themselves after the loss of a mate and confronting certain death in the defense of their young are not uncommon.

as for them loving us, cases of animals facing death (bears, snakes, fire, drowning) to defend their human family are also well documented.

it doesn't really take explaining, however. all it takes is to live a little with a dog, cat, pig, even birds, to know whether they can love or not. They still come around after they've eaten for petting, nuzzling, baby talk, warmth, sharing and communication. What is love if not those things?

Erich Fromm wrote a classic book called "The Art of Love" in which he points out the selfish aspects of spousal/family love and that the truest form of love is brotherly love -- love for everyone regardless of what they can do for YOU.

If some people do love an animal or animals more than people, so be it, you can't dictate emotions. Occasionally, their dog or cat does bite or scratch them. But some would say that people hurt them just about every day of their life.

but enough analyzing love as it apples to one creature or another. let's just do it, indiscriminately and abundantly.

[-V-]

Your pets "love" you for who you really are and they love "only" you. They are, indeed, the most important creatures in the world. It is right that you dedicate yourself to them completely...even at the expense and neglect of human relationships. The little furry house animals are not just pets. They are to be overly romanticized and treated like Gods whose needs and well-being come above humans.

no one said anything about assessing them priority, but if you want priority here it is...
if I found what you just wrote in my kitty's litter i'd hold my nose and scoop that out and leave the cat turds.

Read it again. If it makes sense to you, I won't attempt to convince you that there is any distinction between animal and human relationships.
i did, and what i decided is that what i wrote about love is a gem of enlightenment that you should stick on your refigerator with a magnet so that you can read it over and over again. There are a plethera of distinctions and extra considerations that I apply to my human companions over my animal companions but love isn't one of them. Of that, both deserve all i've got to give.