Poll: Your Pet is Drowning, and so is a Stranger.

[A Weakgeek]

Was my pet a good pet? Or was it an arsehole? If it only ate my food and peed everywhere I'd pick the stranger.

 

[crazyfills]

Id save the stranger if I could you would be an idiot not to. There a frigging human being for christs sake!

 

[Revolutionary]

What if I have an aquatic pet?

 

[Jedamethis]

Wow. People really, really love their pets. I would feel much worse leaving a person to die than my pet. Only people who will mourn the pet will be me and my family, but I won't be blamed or feel guilty, because I know it was the right thing to do. However, the family of the stranger are going to be pissed. Pissed because I decided that my dog should live and their child who they raised and loved should die. And I will regret that for the rest of my life.

Also, there's the somewhat cold and logical weighing up of stranger's potential to help humanity vs the dog's.

 

[Evil Smurf]

jump in save both Teh Kitteh wuvs meh!

 

[CommanderL]

pet know question fuck the stranger not my fault they cant swim I take care of the things I love first and if I am going to risk my life the things I love go first

 

[Sneezeburger]

[SNIP] My pet should know better than to go swimming in a whirlpool with a complete stranger.

Haha.

Honestly? I'd save my cat. Its selfish and probably wrong but fuck i love my cat. Its probably ethicaly and moraly wrong but..
well.

Spoiler

EDIT:
Also this.

And people choosing their pets don't need to "grow up" and it's not sickening like you say. Some people get such a close attachment to animals, that they would do anything for them.

 

[The Human Torch]

The only pets I have are goldfish, so no risk of drowning there.
Just goes to show that fish owners are the best kind of people, we are always available to rescue a drowning person.

 

[BelmontWolf]

Its human nature to save what is more important to them.
So it is actually more normal to want to save a pet rather than save a total stranger. However if the pet was saved and there was a chance to save the stranger the person would THEN put themselves at even greater risk at a second attempt at a rescue.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Its a person... there isn't a choice here.

That was my thought was well. I was clearly wrong. I just hope people would grow up a bit if they ever actually run into this situation.

Kinda sad that Dennis Prager was right. A ridiculous amount of people would save a dog before a human.

This has nothing to do with maturity or age. Not everyone values other humans to the same degree. Is that wrong? Its debatable. Legally your not held accountable (here) if someone dies in preventable situation, morally we are told that human life is of greater importance then any other but the world is overflowing with examples of people who turn on each other over slight offences. Things are never black and white.

Here is what really matters. Who is the person, how old are they, what do they do. As far as I'm concerned, if my pet (by pet I mean Dog... I don't hold as much respect for other animals) has bigger impact to the world then the drowning person then I would obviously choose the dog. Just as people pull the "what if he's a paedophile" card, I see you thinking that all animals are just novelty items. There are dogs who accomplish more in their short lives then some people do in their entire lives. Also, People are driven to depression at the loss of a pet, not to strangers.

This dilemma seems to solely exist for you to propagate cynicism or to elevate your own opinion of yourself.

Here is a better one. Save a young family member, or save a stranger who is the only person who knows the cure for cancer/aids/alzheimer's (pick your poison). Now, lets see you fumble with the reasons why you choose one over the other.

These questions are always bullshit. They are hypothetical circle jerks for people to either generate delusions of grandeur (how selfless, heroic and noble you are to save the strangers child rather then your own dad) or to affirm a selfish opinion (Everyone would save their dad right? Its not just me?)

The right answer is you don't fucking know. At that moment you will be so overcome by emotions (you love your dog, but feel obligated to save the person), flowing with chemicals (fight or flight) which cloud judgement and possibly concerned about your own safety (if they are drowning, I might drown).

I voted for my pet, because fuck your poll.

There is no wrong answer. There is a stupid question though. These conundrums are utterly useless.

 

[Sandjube]

The stranger. I couldn't knowingly let a human being die, as much as the animals death would also grieve me. Although I can't say I'm particularly surprised at the results, many of my friends think the same way.

 

[Lieju]

In that scenario, I'd either save the pet, or try to get help, as I doubt I could save a human being. A child or an animal, maybe(as they are smaller and weaker), but even then it would be more likely that I'd just end up killing myself.

 

[Kroxile]

As cheesy as it may sound I promised my cat a life of luxury and leisure after I almost intentionally killed him when he was tiny... so I save my cat.

I think that even were I not beholden to my word that I would still save my pet because I don't know this guy. What if he turns out to be a killer just playing around fishing, as it were, for victims?

 

[Garrett]

I'm misanthropic. Is that enough for an answer?

Also, humans ARE animals.

Clearly some people -do- need a sky daddy to tell them the basics of right and wrong.

Right and wrong are not universal.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Again, why should he care? Yeah, having a mother of three die in that situation would fucking suck. But I'm not going to have anything to do with that mother or her kids. Why should I care?

And again, those kids and her family are still complete strangers to me. Why are my own feelings not accounted for other than "you'll feel like shit for letting a person die". Well obviously I would but i'd feel equally shitty for letting my pet die, probably more so because I know this dumb animal a lot more than this random person.

Question for you. Ill pay you 10 dollars to push a button. This button will cause 2000 families somewhere on the other side of the world to die in the most painful way imaginable. Their suffering will be almost endless. You also get a video to watch this happen as it happens. Would you press it? If your logic applies youd do it without a second thought. Youd do it for one dollar.

 

[a7xman]

Quite simple: I love my pet, and I don't really much care for other people generally.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

I would go for the stranger, and while I would hope most other people would too, it looks like the pets are winning out by a very small margin