others' lack of empathy toward non-human animals

[fox]

I find this is one of the largest things that alienates me from other people.

I love all animals. Without a question all living, sentient beings that think, feel, and suffer as we do deserve kindness and compassion in my mind. But lots of people seem to differ in this fundamental way that... they just don't care. Little or no empathy toward them... or they turn their eyes away and rationalize harm toward them. Or they make light of it, and I am continually horrified by this.

I have 5 pet rats. They are lovely, sweet, clever, affectionate beings, all with distinct personalities. I love them all dearly. But when I mention them, other people will not hesitate to to joke about feeding them to snakes, or joke about them getting ripped apart by cats, or about eating them. If somebody mentioned their human children and somebody else responded in this way, the person with the child would most likely be very upset (rightfully).... and others would actually understand this. But if this happens with me and my rats, nobody cares, only because my family are a different species.

I find it too, that you will be alienated if you more than just care but you are passionate about this. If people mention humans rights issues... racism, sexism, etc. others will generally take it seriously. But if you mention rights of other animals or you are vocal in standing up for them, you get brushed off or told "get off your soap box". So much I find this attitude and lack of empathy, that it makes me no longer want to be part of human society. When people are like that, my rats are better company any way.

Does anybody possibly relate?

 

[Nicolelt]

I related "in a way".

I will say I am not for animal rights, but animal welfare. I am not one of those extremist.

That being said I often get my feelings hurt when people talk poorly of my dogs. I show them, and they are like my kids. I had worked really hard to train them, and they are like my partners in crime. Seriously like my best friends. I hate it when I hear: "Showing dogs is bad." or "Your dogs are ugly." or "It's just a dog, who cares?" It truly does hurt me. I think it's because I am so passionate about them.

I think it depends on the type of animal you are passionate about. For instance, I could really care less about pet birds. I don't spend time, don't own any, really don't care. But to a person who has dedicated their lives to them, they do! You just need to find more rat lovers, like I found people to show dogs with.

I also think some people do lack empathy to animals, but I think more people just don't understand the passion others have for animals, and we get offended.

 

[TheSkaFish]

I am for kind treatment of animals, myself. They say that animals think and feel and dream just like we do, and although they don't do things like have a written language or produce philosophy or art, they can be very intelligent. I have a golden retriever, or should I say, I live with a golden retriever - he's a family member, not a slave. There's a lot going on with him, his likes and dislikes, his moods that he gets in, he feels joy, he feels worry, friendship, mischief, the whole spectrum of feelings. He acts like a person. He's not a mindless object. I definitely do feel that animals have souls.

 

[EveWasFramed]

I have a rat. I chuckle at people's reaction to that when I mention it. I also chuckle about the snake jokes and whatever other rat jokes they come up with. I also chuckle at my brother when he talks about tossing my kid into the pond when she misbehaves.
I guess if someone MEANT those things as anything other than a joke I might get upset, but they're JOKES and not meant to be taken seriously. Just my own personal two cents - from a mother AND a rat owner.
Everyone few differently about it I suppose.

 

[nerdygirl]

Ah, rats are amazingly talented at bruxing their way into our hearts, aren't they? When I bought my daughter a pet rat, I also got one for myself, because I know they can get depressed if they're alone. I'd had this plan. When she was little, her first pet was a fish. Then, we had fish and shrimp. So the next step was a rat, and then perhaps we'd get a bird. Eventually, we'd get a dog. Little did I know that I was one eye boggle away from absolutely adoring our little rats. In fact, we decided to get a dog instead of more rats specifically because I've never been as attached to a dog as I was to our rats. Dogs became the easier pet.

Before our girls died, I used to hear a lot of those stupid comments about snake food, too. Personally, I feel that anybody who feeds their snakes live rats (unless the snake refuses to eat frozen) deserve to lose their snakes. A rat is a strong and very intelligent creature. If it realizes what's happening, it can defend itself mercilessly. I've seen a rat kill a snake, and have heard horror stories of snakes being fatally injured by rats. It's an unnecessary risk and it is inhumane for both animals. (I'm totally fine with snakes eating rats in the wild, but that's a completely different scenario.)

Rats are some of the more feared and hated animals out there. People associate them with filth and disease. We have the phrase, "sneaky as a rat" and we might call somebody, "a dirty rat". They're associated with the Black Death. They're used in Halloween decorations. If you look at movies, animated rats are usually the treacherous characters... the only fictional rats I can think of that were the good guys in the stories were the rats of NIMH (and even they had a villain).

I think that most people who haven't had pet rats and really interacted with them are oblivious to just how sentient and empathic they are. People rarely doubt a dog's ability to understand. If you said that a dog has adopted you and your family as its pack, nobody would question you. If you said your dog could tell your moods and respond accordingly, it would be accepted very easily. However... people would laugh if you told them that rats will do the same.

There's a scientific study in which free-roaming rats rescued caged rats- even when they had to take the place of the caged rat. The researchers even did the same test, offering the free rats chocolate... and the free rats opted to rescue the caged rats, and then share the treat. I cannot think of many animals that would do such a thing. You can find a video on youtube in which a special microphone picked up the sounds of rats laughing when they're tickled by a human. You can watch them deliberately come to the human's hand to receive even more tickling. And here's the part about that which amazed me- my rat, who usually sat on my shoulder as I sat at the computer- learned that if she licked a particular spot on my neck, it tickled me. It made me laugh. She received no treat, no other special response... but almost every day, she would deliberately lick that spot on my neck until I laughed, then head for her little spot under my hair. There aren't many other animals that will do that, either.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

There is a difference between respecting animals and elevating them to something higher. I will never hit, abuse or neglect an animal but, as much as I love my cat, I will never risk my life to rescue her from a fire. Sure, I'd grab her on my way out or if I had enough time I would spend a bit of it to look for her but if I came home and my place was an inferno I wouldn't run in to rescue her. This sentiment echos in the fact that I will almost never swerve to avoid hitting an animal on the road. If there is nobody else on the road and I can avoid the animal safely I will do it, otherwise I weigh my options and frankly running over a skunk or an opossum is a better option then ending up in a ditch or in a head on collision. Long story short, human life is more important to me than an animal's life.

 

[Grackle]

What people say about animals is a very big indication of what is inside that person's heart. Its a gage I use, just like if someone was racist or homophobic or whatever other hate they showed. Its a measuring stick of who that person really is.

 

[OnlyMe]

The world would be a better place if people were more like animals with their unconditional love and loyality.

Animal cruelty makes my blood boil.
Only the lowest of low would get pleasure out of hurting a defenceless animal.

 

[9006]

This is all about emotional connection, it's not that these people are incapable it's just because they have no emotional attachment to these animals which their 'humor' is acting on. These people talk things they wouldn't do, like you say; rationalize harm toward them most (if any) wouldn't DO anything to them.

I suppose it's normal to have feelings like that towards animals but it becomes a problem when people form emotional attachments to anything and everyone.

 

[ardour]

I don't agree with animal testing for anything except life-saving medical treatment, and I'm moving toward being vegan.

Over twice the land area used to grow crops is currently being utilized for livestock. An ecological disaster as the demand for meat grows with world population.

Red meat and dairy are basically poisonous now and significantly raise the incidence of cancer (which we all pay the emotional and financial cost) Toxins in the environment are concentrated higher in the food chain, that along poor animal living conditions means the meat is health hazard.

Maybe a bit off-topic, sorry.

 

[MTrip]

How about penalties? Mandatory minimum sentenced time on the whipping post & forced sodomy with a rough-surfaced stick for meat consumption, for example. Repeat offenders could be executed by impaling, perhaps? It would be quite the deterrent if televised on the evening news. If cruelty to animals is that great an evil, then the power of government should be used to stop it no matter what else happens, as long as it's stopped.

The above post shouldn't be construed as being in favor of mistreatment of animals. Morality is complicated when applied in real life but gratuitous cruelty is never okay. I just wanted to draw your attention to the most likely consequences of the OP & a few replies to it.

 

[ladyforsaken]

I have 5 pet rats. They are lovely, sweet, clever, affectionate beings, all with distinct personalities. I love them all dearly. But when I mention them, other people will not hesitate to to joke about feeding them to snakes, or joke about them getting ripped apart by cats, or about eating them.

I get that too about my dear sweet little rabbit.

 

[Midnight Sky]

I have 10 rabbits.

I am no stranger to Rabbit dinner jokes. They think it's funny. I don't think it's funny.

 

[ladyforsaken]

I have 10 rabbits.

You have 10 of them?! Awwww!

 

[Midnight Sky]

Been breeding and raising for 10 years. Our 2 oldest are atleast 7 or 8. Given their known short lifespan, been watching these two more lately..

When we have too many, we give to humane society. We don't give them to families because yeah, fear of them being eaten.

 

[Minus]

I have a rat. I chuckle at people's reaction to that when I mention it. I also chuckle about the snake jokes and whatever other rat jokes they come up with. I also chuckle at my brother when he talks about tossing my kid into the pond when she misbehaves.
I guess if someone MEANT those things as anything other than a joke I might get upset, but they're JOKES and not meant to be taken seriously. ...

There are a number of movies where some disaster befalls the family cat, such as " National Lampoon Christmas Vacation" and "Jungle 2 Jungle". Many of those scenes, i find to be pretty funny. Someone who would leap to the conclusion that i would harm animals because of that, would be someone who is quite poor at reading my character. As you said, they are jokes and not meant to be taken seriously. Fiction.

 

[Bob Arctor]

...I have 5 pet rats. They are lovely, sweet, clever, affectionate beings, all with distinct personalities. I love them all dearly. But when I mention them, other people will not hesitate to to joke about feeding them to snakes...

I understand not wanting to hear that kind of joke, but I'm curious as to how you feel about people who have pet snakes?

The world would be a better place if people were more like animals with their unconditional love and loyality...

I think you're overlooking some of the more brutal aspects of nature. For example, dolphin gang violence and chimpanzee gang violence. IMO human behavior is simply a natural extension of the evolutionary process. The big differences between us and other animals is that we've refined our violence, we're able to analyze it, and we're better able (in general) to choose to abstain from violent behavior. Make no mistake though, the compulsion to kill, as well as empathize, is prevalent in many species.

 

[Badjedidude]

How about penalties? Mandatory minimum sentenced time on the whipping post & forced sodomy with a rough-surfaced stick for meat consumption, for example. Repeat offenders could be executed by impaling, perhaps? It would be quite the deterrent if televised on the evening news. If cruelty to animals is that great an evil, then the power of government should be used to stop it no matter what else happens, as long as it's stopped.

Yes, because government force always solves things! Right?

...right?

Or maybe we can attempt to educate people to embrace empathy. But no, that'd be too difficult. Let's use force.

Right?

The world would be a better place if people were more like animals with their unconditional love and loyality...

You seem to be romanticizing things a bit. Ryan is correct.

Animals who display what may be considered "loyalty" do so not because they choose to be loyal out of some adherence to a moral system or recognition of virtue in one another. When an animal is loyal to its mate, it does so unthinkingly as an evolved behavior -- because doing so increases its odds of passing on its genes and having a successful litter/brood/offspring. There's no thought process, there's no appreciation for its mate. The animal simply selects what appears to be the most fit reproductive partner, then spends time supporting that mate only guided by biological drives and evolved instinct.

If that sort of mindless evolutionary drive appeals to you, then... well. I guess you can search for a way to embrace it in your own way.

I'd much rather remain as I am and consciously choose to be loyal to someone because I simply recognize that they are a good person.

 

[Veruca]

I think its great that you and so many other members have rats as pets. They must be super adorable! I love all animals!

I believe in respecting all living creatures. And I think that if we can live a fairly decent life without harming another living being, then we should.

I'm a vegan for ethical reasons, but I don't impose my beliefs on others. I don't preach about it or expect everyone to become vegan. But when people find out I am one, they endlessly try to pull me into some kind of debate so they can prove to me that I have got it all wrong. Or they make fun of me.

Usually, I chuckle it off like Eve said. But some people do take it too far, and for those I reserve my tasteful insults. Usually shuts them up

 

[SofiasMami]

I read a story about a pet rat awhile back and now I have respect for rat owners

http://www.oprah.com/relationships/How-a-Hong-Kong-Alley-Rat-Changed-One-Couples-Life

-Teresa