Poll: If You Were Faced with a Decision

[MineralMan]

of whether to save a human being or a dog, if both were in peril and you could only save one, which would you save?

13 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	The Person
	7 (54%)
	The Dog
	0 (0%)
	Neither: I\'d not risk my own safety.
	0 (0%)
	I\'d Call 911 and let them save one or the other.
	0 (0%)
	Nunna your beeswax.
	0 (0%)
	There is a DUer who is a dingbat.
	1 (8%)
	Added: It depends on who the human is and the dog.
	5 (38%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[NightWatcher]

1. depends on the human and the dog

if it was a friend or family member or a stray dog....human
if it were one of my less friendly neighbors or my dog....dog

[MineralMan]

3. I added that option to the poll.

Thanks.

[Ian David]

18. While it would be kind of fun to watch Dick Cheney's face as I saved his dog from a fire...

... and left him behind to burn, I'm pretty sure I would save the human being, no matter who it was.

Unless they were too big to move or something.

"Sorry, I'm not strong enough to lift you, so I'll just have to save the dog."

[hlthe2b]

42. Cheney or an innocent loving dog with the potential to bring a lot of joy to someone...

Hmmmm.... what a quandary, I suppose.

[JaneyVee]

2. Human, obviously.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. human, unless it was my dog. i see my dog as part of my family

and if this were a quick decision, i would more like protect my family than someone else's.

although, even if it were not a quick decision, i am not a 100% sure what most people do. My pet costs a good amount of money every month, i could have given that money to charity to save humans. So in a sense, am i not picking to save my dog over humans every day?

[get the red out]

16. Well

I am with you except I'm not going to feel guilty about money spent on my dog until the massive fleet of SUVs I see every day get downsized to something rational and that gas money spent to aid something living or the environment.

[Buzz Clik]

5. Other. I'd take of video of the whole thing. Hopefully something cool would happen.

[MineralMan]

6. I'm not adding that option. Nosirree!

[Ian David]

19. Good idea. You might get to be on Tosh.0

"And now, here's a man getting bitten in the nuts by his dog while his house burns down."

[Buzz Clik]

40. I'd watch that!

[Wait Wut]

7. Both.

Because if this situation arose and I was able to save anyone/thing, it would be a dream and I'd have super human powers. In reality, I would panic and go into hysterics and someone would have to save me.

I am not the person you want around in a life or death situation.

[Scuba]

8. If both are strangers, the human. But if it's my dog vs. Dick Cheney? Swim you war criminal, swim.

[Flashmann]

9. depends on who the human is and the dog.

Someone like Michelle Bachmann,Scott Walker,Paul 'Lyin' Ryan,etc. or a stray,shit eating dog...The dog...

[CBGLuthier]

10. Oddly enough that is exactly what I was pondering earlier

I have in this house three cats, two dogs, one wife and one daughter.

The cats and dogs are on their own. If we were evacuating, say for a tornado, they could go in the car but if the house were on fire I would barely remember them.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes. That would be my decision, too.

The dog would automatically follow us, as it does all the time. The cats both disappear anytime anything weird is going on, and I'm not going hunting for them.

[tkmorris]

12. Does this human owe me money?

Details man, DETAILS!

[Brickbat]

13. Human, every time.

[MineralMan]

14. Thanks. That would be my call, too.

[REP]

15. I'd choose the false dichotomy every time

I always do.

[Orrex]

46. It's actually not a false dichotomy

It's a hypothetical, posed with several specific circumstances yielding specific outcomes.


A false dichotomy, for instance, would be "If you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over?"

The implication is that one must choose between "doing it right the first time" and "never doing it right at all," when in fact additional outcomes are possible.

In the proposed hypothetical, the question is "If you could choose only one of two actions, which would you choose?"

A very different formulation of a very different question.

[hlthe2b]

17. There might well also be a parameter for which COULD be saved...

I shouldn't expect a hopeless attempt to save the human that would render both victim and "savior' dead, whether it were a human or not...If rescuing one or the other was hopeless, for heavens sake save the one who COULD be saved.

I await to see if the minority who seems to love nothing more than to scream at animal lovers--who they maintain can not possibly love their fellow humans sufficiently as a result of their love for their animals, will have a problem with this logic as well. If they do, well, I'll leave it unsaid.

[MineralMan]

22. It's a simple poll. All things being equal...

which would you do? That's not hard to figure out. I'm not going to clutter the poll with parameters like yours.

[hlthe2b]

23. Geez what a rude response for a very valid point. NO, I think I'll pass.

[MineralMan]

25. It wasn't meant to be rude. I could introduce many parameters, so

I kept it as simple as I could. I cannot possible include every possibility. The poll is what it is. If you can't vote, that's fine. Nothing depends on it.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Every year dogs die saving people and people die saving dogs

The dogs are called heroes, the people are called idiots. I think it's just a love story. I frequent a place in the mountains where everything is named after a dog who long ago died protecting his human companion who was a surveyor and named everything in sight after the dog.

[MineralMan]

21. It's just a DU poll. It's not that complicated, really.

[Bluenorthwest]

27. That was my response to the poll, sorry if it's too much for you.

The hypothetical presented seemed contrived, and perhaps it is all about some current DU dust up that I don't know about.

[MineralMan]

28. Not at all. It doesn't matter, really, whether anyone votes or not.

So it has nothing to do with whether it's too much for me or not. Vote or don't vote. It's not important enough to get exercised about.

[Iggo]

24. People.

Always people.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. The cat.

I love hypothetical questions because nobody can actually answer them. "What do think you would do in this situation?" is far more apt.

[MineralMan]

29. There is no cat in the situation.

Cats generally stay out of most trouble. Dogs and humans are prone to trouble, it seems. The question is always "what do you think you would do" in this type of poll.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. You left out the "all of the above", "maybe/maybe not", and "I don't know" options.

And, I would bet that most people really don't know but are speculating.

There are far too many "what ifs" involved.

What if the guy had just beaten your child to death with a hammer?

What if the dog is rabid?

etc, etc, etc.

I chose the "it depends" answer.

[MineralMan]

32. Thanks for voting.

Typically, in such situations, the decision is a quick one. This is about such a situation.

Some people don't decide until it's too late. That's a decision, too.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. We agree again!

[MineralMan]

34. We really must stop doing that...

[Brother Buzz]

30. I'm channeling Jack Benny

Robber: Your money or your life

Jack Benny: (deadpan stare)

Robber: Look buddy, I said, your money or your life

jack Benny: I'm thinking it over!

[cherokeeprogressive]

35. Depends. What's the human's voting record? n/t

[MineralMan]

36. I don't think there will be time to find out, really.

There rarely is. So pretend you don't know.

[baldguy]

37. I'd like to think that I'd save the human.

But if it was MY dog...

[11 Bravo]

38. If the "human" is Rush Limbaugh and the dog is my rescue lab, well ... sorry, Pigboy.

[geek tragedy]

39. If it's a beloved pet vs a serial rapist, ya I'm saving the pet every time. nt

[dimbear]

41. If a person actually finds oneself in that situation, he/she tries to save the human.

You can't help yourself, it's automatic. Even someone you don't like.

[Shrek]

43. What if it were Michael Vick?

I don't know that I have it in me to save him instead of an innocent dog.

Honestly I have to take the final option in your poll even though I'm not 100% comfortable with it.

[LWolf]

44. It depends.

In most cases, assuming that both were equally accessible and possible to save, it would be the person.

There are so many persons, though, that do not make the world a better place though, and dogs that do.

If I didn't know the person, I'd assume the best. If I did, though...

I can think of people that would be second to the dog.

[Orrex]

45. I sure as hell wouldn't save the dog until I reviewed its pedigree

I mean, I would hate to tell the story afterwards only to be scolded for scandalously misidentifying the breed.