Posted on 11/13/2013 7:08:58 AM PST by chessplayer
It is evil to equate animals with humans.
Correct. I have been around long enough and seen enough to learn that animals are above a great many humans.
A live dog can also warm your hands, today and tomorrow.
Sounds rather dumb. The body naturally consumes fat and muscle tissue when starving. Probably far more efficiently than eating your own meat. Having a serious wound like an amputated leg also wastes energy.
This story is (gasp) another example of poorly written, poorly researched, tear-jerkingly liberal journalism.
The guy was an experienced outdoorsman.
He was on a planned two month canoe expedition.
The area was the far NW portion of Quebec...the Canadian Shield is VERY hard to live in, regardless of survival training.
The guy has not really been interviewed, as he was within 1-2 days of death when found. He will require weeks, if not months, of hospital care. He could not eat or drink when found.
His family reported him missing about two weeks after his expected return...they were not unusually concerned by a late return at first, they knew his abilities. He was eventually found by a search and rescue helicopter crew.
Because of his inability to be interviewed, the timeline of events is murky as to when he killed the dog, but it certainly was not after only three days.
The fact that he was so close to death when found shows that his eating the dog saved his life. What more can be asked of a dog?
Unlike so many of those on this thread, I think the guy conducted himself pretty damned well.
Still didn’t bring a firearm into the wilderness. That’s nothing short of sheer stupidity in my books. I don’t go anywhere in the Alberta outdoors without some kind of firearm.
“What more can be asked of a dog?”
I don’t have any issue with the dog. My issue is with the guy. Story says 3 days so until there is something else I’ll go with 3 days.
People who go there by themselves alone and without adequate equipment shouldn’t expect sympathy when they get into trouble.
...and continued to survive for 3 more months. On what? It certainly wasn't the dog..........
I think the guy panicked, jumped the gun and foolishly killed the dog.......
He couldn’t go three days without food?
You don't head out into the wilderness without basic orienteering and knowledge of survival skills unless you're a dumbass enviro-weenie.
This guy reminds me of that photographer who headed into the Alaskan wilderness with his nubile and naive sex-kitten to film his new found family of grizzlies.......only to end up as dinner.
What hasn't been mentioned is that if his expedition had been in Alaska, he would at least have had the legal right to carry a sidearm in order to fend off any hostile predators..........
Heard a story a while back about a couple that went for a drive somewhere in the Pacific NW (forest road near Mt. St. Helens), got stuck in the snow.
Both diabetic, had no food with them to speak of.
At the end of the week, they were both in reasonably good shape; didn't have any insulin, but since they were both living off of body fat, they didn't need it.
Lets get out into the meat and bones of your argument. Roughly equating Cattle Rustlers, Horse Thieves, with this man, and equating the emotional well being of animals with humans.
Firstly, the crimes of theft of property like cattle rustling and horse thieving are not committed against animals. They are theft of property from another person who's livelihood is damaged. So, false argument.
Second, science says a lot of things, but ethics does not derive purely from science. Dog's, Cat's, Shamu, et all, none of these creatures are as valuable as a human person.
I've got no problem making an absolute statement here, because we are dealing in moral and ethical absolutes. Your bleeding heart ethics are impossible for any dog to comprehend much less for a rational human being.
Even convicts on death row get a last meal (which an animal has to die for).
I'll give you this man is an idiot, but which person is less person for being an idiot? You? Still a human being in my book. I'll also give you this man is an ass for making a decision to completely ignore the warnings of others, good sense and judgment, et all. That still does not change who he is. Human beings are still far greater than any animal in the eyes of God, and any sane calculation of ethics.
The fact is we don't know what the first 3 days of Cold wilderness in Canada was like there. We don't know what emotional state this man was in after realizing a huge error, or what the days being fed by his Dog bought him in terms of planning and survival for the remainder of his time there. Still does not change the Calculus of ethics. A Human is greater than an animal.
Reminds me of how W.C. Fields preferred children...
I'll take a dog over many so-called "humans".
If the man couldn’t feed himself, he certainly couldn’t feed the dog. A starving dog is suffering and if it can’t be fed it should be put out of its misery sooner rather than later. And after that’s done, there’s no good reason not to eat it.
And I’ll bet the Dog had the knowledge, capability and wits to give the epitaph, “Hay Look...Hot Dog’s!”
Listen...you obviously don’t understand human beings. I suggest a serious soul search about what good and evil really are before writing down the words you have stated. Only evil is served by dehumanizing other human beings.
Oh but I do. Some, like some Christians, are human beings in name only. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Dahmer, Ghein, Malvo, Bin Laden, Hasan, McVeigh, etc. are prime examples.
Al bet, some extremely poor examples of human beings, still human beings. But we don't condemn the men on that list for eating pork, and shooting geese. We consign them to the outer darkness for the damage they do to other human beings as human beings.
There is a vast difference in structure and application of values. One does not deny the fact of identity, another denies it from others against the truth of the claim.
Listen...I would say that list is full of evil men, but they are men just the same. We don't obscure truth because it is inconvenient that human beings breed Hitlers as well as Washington's. If you deny facts you end up with an ethics indistinguishable from amorality, which is just as good as any other amorality.
Andes plane crash - inspiration for the bumper sticker “Ruggers eat their dead”.
Real men aren't evil wanton murderers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.