Who would you save: A beloved pet or a complete stranger?

Well look who has come to cause chaos to S Gifts Forums...

I hate questions like these because they have no context.

honestly this question is flawed.

The only time this could possibly apply is if your a forcibly given the choice. the only way this would happen in real life would be if someone... IE. a serial killer ala- saw... set up some elaborate contraption and told you to choose.

If it were not a fabricated situation there would be little to no way of knowing that one would die while you saved the other. Therefor my answer would be both starting with the furthest away and ending with the closest for the shortest trip regardless of which (the pet or stranger) were further. And I think most people would do the same under the unknown circumstances.

absolutes rarely appear in real life...

If you truly love something then it's a no brainer, because you'd choose the creature you love. Your going to feel really guilty regardless which you choose and that will likely remain on your conscious for a very long time if not forever. I'd save my cat because he trusts me and would be depending on me to save him and not saving him would be like a betrayal. My cat would almost certainly die, while the human might be able to make it out alive.

I'd likely die trying to save both, but the life of a loved one will always come first over a total stranger. In the end they are both creatures with an equal right to live, both are likely loved by someone, and lifespan doesn't make much difference either since the cat could out live the human. We live far more dangerous lives than our pets

Yeah this person might some day cure cancer, or create something amazing but at the same time he might not ever do anything useful, in fact in the future he could KILL the person that would have cured cancer or built the first warp engine. Who knows the pet I saved could be immune to cancer or some other disease and he could be the cure.

Dogs have been known to save their owners, and if it came down to a dog having this choice i'm almost certain it would choose the owner instead of some stray dog it doesn't even know.

Anybody who even hesitates to choose an animal life over a human life needs to get shot

I agree that choosing the stranger is the better choice, but some of the arguments supporting the stranger are downright terrible.

Don't downplay the love that one can have for a pet, people. Don't make assumptions that people who'd choose their pet do not feel love to other people. Come on.

MY pet or a strange person? I'm not trolling or whatever when i say i would never hesitate in saving my pet. He's a member of the family and I love him.

I also don't inherently place human life above that of an animal... life is life... and to be perfectly honest, I'm far less disgusted by the actions of animals than I am in how the bulk of the human race behaves. Humans aren't any more 'worth' saving than any other animal on the planet... if anything, id say animals are our DUTY to look after, because we've put them in a position where we've claimed ownership and responsibility for them through our actions in claiming the planet as our own for sole ownership.

...but if it was an animal I didn't know, and a human I didn't know... id naturally be more rational about it and pick whichever one was closer (or easier to save).

100 hardcore animal lovers just gave their lives for someone's pet chihuahua.

My pet, no question about it.

Definitelly my pet, the sad thing is, that she died a week ago in sixteen years. :((

Stranger. Hero. Interview. Money. New pet.

Myself to let them both live? I love my pets, they ARE my children, no matter what anyone else says. Especially since I may never have children. I recently lost Saydee. She was my world, there when nobody else was, slept beside me in bed, curled in my lap with me while I played on the PC or 360. She watched movies with me on the couch. She would jump up at me for me to pick her up in my arms and hold her. She was crazy about tennis balls, and would chase them all day never getting tired of you throwing them. She played chase in the yard, letting you chase after her while she kept the ball away from you. Her best friend was Magyk, the cat you see in the second picture. To this day, about six months after her death, it still hurts like crazy when I remember her and see her pictures.

That being said, I have a high regard for human life also, I am still the one that holds open doors for random strangers, letting them go first. I still help pick up stuff when it is dropped. I am one of the ones that does a good deed, then gets yelled at for it, just to do it again. I still try to respect everyone, no matter what they look like or who they are. You never know what they have been through, or who they may be.

Honestly, without being faced with the situation at hand, I could not tell you what I would do. To those that don't have pets or don't think of them as part of the family, they will never understand the true emotional attachment you get. I also have Mouse, Tigger, Silver/Gray, Magyk, Black cat with best friend Saydee, Skully, and our newest addition, Sookie.

What if I have a pet stranger??!?!?!

To anybody who feels like they need to justify prioritizing the life of a dog over a human being. Riddle me this, would you be fine if somebody pulled the trigger on you in order to save their pet?

Depends on the situation. If the stranger isn't sentient, I'm saving the pet. If the stranger IS sentient, but, say, is standing in the way of an oncoming train, and the only way to save him is to divert the train onto a set of tracks where the pet is standing, I'm saving whoever is smart enough to not stand in front of an oncoming train.

Otherwise, I'm probably saving the stranger.

Save the stranger then ask him for money / gifts.

@Major Joe: I never said smarter that me, i just say a "smart" guy.

And it's simple the lack of a moral system in the animals makes them take and fight only for what they want/need. In us (humans) a moral system also has it's dark side, the greed, envy. All those "bad feelings" that after all are feelings and thus part of the morality.

If animals lack morality they also lack of this dark or "corrupted" feelings, making them better than humans to live in peace at long terms

The stranger.
What can the pet do for me in the long run?

The pet, no questions asked.

Is the girl hot?

first of all is the pet dead, alive or both?

Beloved pet.

Hard choice as many already stated... but hell... I would save my beloved cat, instead of a complete stranger...

The stranger, obviously.
Pets are worthless for me, in comparison to a human.
A human's company cannot be compared to that of an animal's company. Humans may be flawed, but they have intelligence. Its simultaneously our greatest gift and our greatest curse.
(And please, no more "but humans are animals too" bullshit.)