Just shoot the dog!

[Mythsaje]

I got to work this morning and a fellow worker was commenting on her commute home last night, how traffic had been backed up on her route home and, coming upon the cause of the problem, discovered it was because of a dog, a dogcatcher, and the people slowing down to look at the whole mess.

Her comment... "Just SHOOT the damn thing. I'm trying to get home."

I was aghast. Other co-workers listened to this story and didn't say much of anything, but I had the urge to light into her with four kinds of dragon flame.

This is the problem with RWers, in my opinion. (Not that she's a RWer. As far as I can tell, she's apolitical). It's all about THEM. Their families, their money, their religion, THEIR convenience. Kill a dog because it added half an hour to their transit time? A reasonable response to some.


I KNOW it's not just me...I really give a damn about other people and other creatures...I'm empathic. Or empathetic...whatever. I don't even like it when people kill bugs that aren't causing them any harm. I'm arachnaphobic, yet I'll throw spiders outside rather than squash them. The only creatures I'll kill are parasites (I hate mosquitoes) and bees, but only wasps, generally, when they decide they're not willing to leave with gentle prompting.

But I'm truly passionate about dogs. My wife and I do dog rescue. This woman KNOWS that...The fact that she would say such a thing, so callously, in front of me, blew my mind.

That's why I like coming here. Of all the places I have been so far, I have met more genuinely like-minded people--not in lockstep, thank <insert chosen Deity name here> here on DU than I ever thought I could.

Genuinely good people who care about others beside themselves.

I live with a Libertarian...I love her, but she's the first one to admit she's not empathic with people. Just animals.

Thankfully, a lot of the local pagan community are also lefties, and GET it. The funny thing is that my wife is really the pagan in our family. All the rituals and what not mean not a whit to me. I enjoy the company, but I don't feel as though I need to conduct some ceremony to connect with the Cosmos. I always feel connected.

I tell people "I don't believe in a God Box." You say you know God? NO ONE can know God. God is a concept the human mind can barely bend itself around, so people need to stop telling me they speak for God. I ain't buying it.

Yesterday I posted a rant...unusual for me. Today I wanted to come with something introspective, and sharing a tiny emotional hurt with people I thought would understand it.

Just a little glimpse into the soul of Saje.

Have a nice day. :)

[Kraklen]

1. Yeah, a year or two ago...

there was a suicide jumper holding up traffic on a bridge and people were shouting at her to jump.

[Mythsaje]

2. Just goes to prove

there's a few in every crowd. "Die, bitch...it'll be entertaining!"

Truly sick.

[Kraklen]

4. I think it was more then a few.

I don't remember the details, but the police had to shut the whole freeway down because there were so many people telling her to jump. If memory serves me right, she jumped.

[ConfuZed]

3. Meh they are going to euthanize the dog anyway :)

[Kraklen]

5. Gee, thanks Smarmy McTactful.

[ConfuZed]

7. ....If they can't find a family to adopt it

:)

[AlienGirl]

14. It happened a while back in Seattle

The would-be jumper was eventually stopped and hospitalized, and while she was in the psych ward, radio host Tom Leykis gave out her name and hospital room, encouraging his listeners to "thank her for holding up traffic." :grr:

Tucker

[Mythsaje]

19. Leykus is an ass. n/t

[expatriate]

6. I believe it's more of a case of people in general

not being particularly empathetic - and the less "correct" empathy might be, the less they will feel impelled to express it. After all, a dog wasn't of this woman's species, she deems it less valuable than herself, and probably than other humans - so the hell with it, just blow it away and let it go home.

Lack of empathy isn't necessarily a right wing trait, though some right wing beliefs would tend to lead to having a lack of empathy, particularly the "stewardship" notions about how everything was put on Earth for man's use. Most stewardship believers I've ever met were horribly callous toward animals.

Empathy is something that could really use some attention on the part of many people today. I was raised to be very empathic, and to always consider the feelings of others, of animals, of the impact my actions had on other people.

Of course, this very ingrained behavior has resulted in me never getting ahead or doing particularly well in competitive situations! Maybe that's why the people in power now are where they are.

[Mythsaje]

8. I think empathy should be taught in the schools...

more than taught. Emphasized. Schools are so competitive that the very system encourages bullying.

[karlrschneider]

9. I rarely kill any insects except flies and roaches. I'll spend 5 minutes

to catch a wasp, bee or spider in a glass (put a piece of cardboard over the top when they get inside) and take them outside. And I'm allergic to stings...but have found that it's VERY rare for a wasp or bee to sting if you just sit or stand still and let them do their inspection. (It takes some practice when they're walking on your arm, I know) :D

[skygazer]

10. I do agree with you that it's a right wing trait

One of my co-workers and I had an interesting conversation the other day. She is the assistant to a guy who heads a department and we had a major conversion coming up that was to last two weeks. Fully knowing that, her boss took those two weeks for vacation, then when he realized the following week was going to be nearly as ugly, he took that too! (he did not have any concrete plans set either so it's not like he had to take that time)

My friend had NEVER done this stuff alone before and was absolutely swamped and overwhelmed the entire time (nevertheless she did an awesome job). She was telling me that her boss had actually been joking about it, saying things like, "oh, you're going to be up shit's creek" and laughing before he left. I said, "oh, I bet he's a Republican."

She looked surprised and said, "Yes, he is. I never thought about that."

Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost, that's their motto. Scum.

[NMMNG]

11. People like that really cheese me off

No empathy for any person or being other than themselves. I wonder why they just don't go off and live in a shack in the woods so other people don't have to be affected by their lack of empathy :shrug:. The bizzare thing is that some of them actually end up in the helping professions or in places like pet stores--go figure.

[samdogmom]

12. Gee, I'm always the one holding up traffic waiting for a bird, duck,

squirrel, whatever to cross the road. I'd just die if I killed something. And, my daughter is right beside me cautioning me to be careful. We don't even kill bugs--we remove them to the outdoors (and then do again later when they re-enter our house.) I can't imagine wanting to shoot a dog to get home faster. A few weeks ago, my daughter and I chased a stray, lost dog all over town for a few hours because we were so concerned that it was going to get hit by a car. We had to give up when it got dark because we were on foot and we couldn't see anymore, but we worried about the poor thing for days after that.

I think it all comes down to whether you put yourself above all others, or your value others as much as you value yourself. I much prefer the company of empathetic people!

[Piperay]

13. It's not just RWingers

you will find Liberals who have no empathy for other species either and lots of them are right here in the DU. :-(

[KerryOn]

15. This is what I would have said:

"You see dear the problem wasn't the dog, it was all the people. There are just way to many people in the world. If there were fewer people then the dog in the road would not have slowed you commute home. So lets just start shooting a few people, starting with YOU!"

[Hidden Stillness]

16. Cruel People are Dull and Stupid

This shows you the lesson that not all causes of merciless cruelty are deep and psychological, or with some kind of "background" to it. Sometimes it is very trivial, like being rushed and annoyed. There was an interesting result from studying the 1965 Kitty Genovese case, where a woman was chased around right next to an apartment building for like 20 minutes or whatever it was, repeatedly stabbed until she was dead, screaming the whole time, and even though there were many people in this apartment building, no one called police. One thing they discovered by questioning people was that exactly because there were so many people there, each one thought that someone else would surely call. Of course, you have cases where many people do call, so it still doesn't explain something.

There is an old expression, "the banality of evil," by Hannah Arendt, about Nazi guards and etc., and that they are often not the Frankenstein monsters you might think they would be, but strangely "ordinary," and this also reminds you of the experiments done on people who thought they were inflicting huge electrical shocks on people on the other side of a wall who could not answer questions correctly. They kept timidly pushing the button to "shock" the other person, even when it was pretended to them that the voltage was increased to deadly levels. The stressor was when the "professor" conducting the experiment yelled at them and there was no social support for refusing. Very high numbers of people went along with it.

People who work with animal abusers often find this problem: sometimes they are violent and cruel, but sometimes they are just so stupid as to the consequences of putting a too-small collar on the dog, not feeding the animal, or neglecting it completely. The stupidity of cruelty is a puzzle. I would love to let the abused dogs rip these people apart, but it still remains--this dumb impatience/selfishness is also one of the main causes of abuse.

[Solly Mack]

17. I held up traffic for a family of skunks once - but no one minded

They enjoyed watching the skunks too. It was a really nice experience...bunch of strangers stopping their cars to watch the baby skunks and their parent go by.


I also brake for turtles... though generally I'll get out and pick the turtle up and place it on the shoulder in the direction it was going.....I hate seeing dead turtles on the road.

Fact is, I'll drive off the road before I'll hit an animal. Been there, done that - got the scars from the claw marks of my passenger to prove it too. (hehe)

I don't kill bugs either. I let them out as well.

Your co-worker is a poopiehead.

As for the people cheering the lady to jump - DAMN!

[slackmaster]

18. It's never the dog's fault

I say shoot the dog OWNER who let the beast out.

:hide: