animal video empathy (mentally, boyfriend, mom, husband)
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Narrowing the rabbit hole to videos of animal reunifications, survival, recovery, etc. What does this do to us when we emphasize so much on a daily basis. Sadness, happiness, again and again.
One thing is true, our bodies and brains learn to recognize this feeling, and then we might depend on it more. But our bodies don't have to go far looking for proxies, because youtube is always at our fingertips.
One of my personal life struggles has been to learn to toughen up when it comes to animals. As a child we moved to the country, and lost several dogs to cars and my neighbors gun. Later I had a psycho boyfriend who tortured and beat to death some kittens and cats while I was away on a trip. Now I own property in a packed city neighborhood where cats get lost to the streets, and I see their struggle.
These are things you learn to endure and process so you can move on. Picture native tribesmen watching animal videos all day, -where would we be as a species, nowhere. Now people spend every day on the same subject. Computers really are taking over our brains, obviously. In the future I think it will create new classes of people.
Last edited by terrasurf; 02-15-2022 at 05:20 AM..
I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at, but maybe I understand.
You think we're too soft, when it comes to animals? Well...I think MOST of us have the luxury of having pets. At least, in developed countries, we have the luxury of having pets, and I think that's OK. I'm not going to begrudge myself, or anyone else for having a loving relationship with an animal.
But...I don't think it necessarily means that we don't make tough decisions when we need to. I don't live on a farm, but those who DO live on farms might send their cattle off to be slaughtered, or wring the neck of a chicken at times, or shoot varmints like rats and snakes...I mean...like I said, they make those tough decisions when they need to.
Setting aside the obvious need for someone to mentally handle the necessity of slaughtering livestock and such... I don't want to be the kind of person who has no empathy for animals, who is OK with a boyfriend who tortured kittens, who has a cold hard heart towards suffering.
As for street cats, much like street humans, I cannot save them. Not all, maybe not even one, no matter if they are able to save themselves or they are not, my own resources are only so much and I won't harm myself to save others because I have spent enough years doing that and watching other people allow that impulse to wreak havoc in their lives. My Mom is one of those "I can't just let this cat suffer" people who always has a house full of cats. Problem is, her delusion tells her that they are so much better off, and I'm not so sure. Not when they've gone hungry when she could not afford to feed them all, not when she can't afford vet care if they need it...sometimes you have to accept that you cannot save them all and you should not try.
Of course those who have the resources may do as they please. (Cat House on the Kings, for example.) Good for them.
But that does not mean that you have to be so uncaring as to be comfortable with deliberate cruelty.
If nothing else, the other aspect that explains why we should all be alarmed by humans who are cruel to animals, is that we know that they are also likely to be cruel to humans.
Setting aside the obvious need for someone to mentally handle the necessity of slaughtering livestock and such... I don't want to be the kind of person who has no empathy for animals, who is OK with a boyfriend who tortured kittens, who has a cold hard heart towards suffering.
As for street cats, much like street humans, I cannot save them. Not all, maybe not even one, no matter if they are able to save themselves or they are not, my own resources are only so much and I won't harm myself to save others because I have spent enough years doing that and watching other people allow that impulse to wreak havoc in their lives. My Mom is one of those "I can't just let this cat suffer" people who always has a house full of cats. Problem is, her delusion tells her that they are so much better off, and I'm not so sure. Not when they've gone hungry when she could not afford to feed them all, not when she can't afford vet care if they need it...sometimes you have to accept that you cannot save them all and you should not try.
Of course those who have the resources may do as they please. (Cat House on the Kings, for example.) Good for them.
But that does not mean that you have to be so uncaring as to be comfortable with deliberate cruelty.
If nothing else, the other aspect that explains why we should all be alarmed by humans who are cruel to animals, is that we know that they are also likely to be cruel to humans.
Completely agree. There are humane people, and there are inhumane people.
For instance, I don't want ants in my house. I would prefer methods to keep them from coming in my house, as opposed to poisoning them once they're inside if I can and I certainly don't capture them and pull their little legs off or pick their heads off. And I don't pull the wings off of flys, etc. That's being inhumane.
But sometimes killing an animal IS the most humane thing to do. When I was married to my first husband, our house had a real bad mouse problem. We had mousetraps all over the place. One day I saw a mouse tail peeking out from under the couch. I pulled it out and released it from the trap, and saw that it was still barely alive. I threw it out in the yard. After a minute or so, I felt bad...it was a hot day, and I knew that it would suffer as long as it was still living.
I went and got a hammer and tapped it's little head, putting it out of its misery.
A physician on PBS years ago said that humans can't process all the bad news of the world. I think there must be a happy medium between too much and too little empathy. If you care about it and you can't help, it can only pain you to know about it. I think you've been through more than your share of pain regarding pets. I like watching happy animal videos but sometimes a tragic one gets mixed in; I can't stand them.
I'm grateful for those who are able to put animals out of their suffering. Being married to a man who grew up on the farm I've had the luxury of not having to do that. So far, for many years the situation hasn't presented itself to me and I hope it never does.
It's always been a tender spot for me and sometimes I ask myself if I could kill to feed or protect my family. We are lucky people to not to have dealt so far with that issue. Others around the world haven't been that lucky.
I'm aware of those who watch videos where animals have been harmed and then post about their grief or anger. It's a vicarious pastime and I'm not sure that a lot of that can be healthy for a person. Maybe if feels like a safer way to feel the real grief a person carries by transferring it to an animal you aren't associated with?
Can it help heal or does it become a sad habit? Those videos or news stories only give me a sense of helplessness over all the suffering we earthlings live with. I don't need a lot of reminders of that.
In fact I wrote the SPCA and told them to stop sending me appeals for donations because of the animal abuse porn they were sending along with their request. Open the letter and feel like someone just rubbed mud in my eyes.
On the other hand I remember reading Beautiful Joe and Black Beauty as a child, novels about animals who were abused and later saved by loving families. That kind of literature grew out of the growing social awareness of the Victorian era and was very popular.
It's sentimental and has a happy ending and there are many of us who like those kinds of stories.
Narrowing the rabbit hole to videos of animal reunifications, survival, recovery, etc. What does this do to us when we emphasize so much on a daily basis. Sadness, happiness, again and again.
One thing is true, our bodies and brains learn to recognize this feeling, and then we might depend on it more. But our bodies don't have to go far looking for proxies, because youtube is always at our fingertips.
One of my personal life struggles has been to learn to toughen up when it comes to animals. As a child we moved to the country, and lost several dogs to cars and my neighbors gun. Later I had a psycho boyfriend who tortured and beat to death some kittens and cats while I was away on a trip. Now I own property in a packed city neighborhood where cats get lost to the streets, and I see their struggle.
These are things you learn to endure and process so you can move on. Picture native tribesmen watching animal videos all day, -where would we be as a species, nowhere. Now people spend every day on the same subject. Computers really are taking over our brains, obviously. In the future I think it will create new classes of people.
I guess I just don't understand how people have the time to think about such deep thoughts that amount to nothing. Is it boredom? Is there nothing to think about or do that's constructive in your day? I really don't get it. I would have to be lying in bed for a month with no TV no games, no magazines, no books , no company, no pet, nothing.. to make me think about this.
I guess I just don't understand how people have the time to think about such deep thoughts that amount to nothing. Is it boredom? Is there nothing to think about or do that's constructive in your day? I really don't get it. I would have to be lying in bed for a month with no TV no games, no magazines, no books , no company, no pet, nothing.. to make me think about this.
I think it's about personality types, Bootsamillion. Some of us tend to be thinkers more than feelers. Others of us have particularly "loud" feelings. And for those people learning to put those feelings in proper perspective is an important life task.
The reason for that is feelings can be so overwhelming that they can dominate one's good judgement and if they do it sets us up for a life of poorly reasoned choices and the misery that goes along with that.
You know, like when you "fall in love" with the wrong person and can't see the pitfalls of marrying them. Not until that initial "love" feeling falls away and you can see more clearly.
So thinking about how feelings affect us is a useful pastime for some people.
Many of us know adrenaline junkies who enjoy creating feelings of danger in their activities. Others talk about the morbid comfort of entertaining feelings of loneliness. And who doesn't know that person who has to break out in an angry tirade periodically?
I do think that people can become habituated to grief or sorrow as well. That's a whole other conversation with neurological and psychiatric implications.
Feelings are powerful.
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