Vegan? How 'extreme' are you?

Question

Do you say see animals as being as important (no word really fits) as humans? Please honestly make a clear decision on this point before answering the next questions. Cheat, by reading ahead,  and you'll spoil it for yourself and possibly regret it.
QUESTION 1:
You are walking your much loved dog down by the river. You love walking down to the falls. You see a complete stranger in the water, in trouble, and quickly approaching the falls.  Your dog, an extremely intelligent animal, jumps in to try to save the person. But your dog also gets into trouble. You are an international swimmer, confident that you could save one of them, but not both. So, which one do you swim out to?  
QUESTION 2:  Why did you make that choice?

Longdrive · Answer

OK, let's get the ball rolling:
Without any hesitation whatsoever I would choose to try and save my dog, and let the person likely drown.
Why?  In almost every case I experience a greater love for animals than I do for humans, and I know the dog. The deep unqualified all forgiving love one can experience with a pet is rarely, if ever, replicated with another human.
Am I being honest? Most certainly. Many years ago whilst driving my car an 88 year male  was out hunting on a horse far too powerful for him to control. The hunt was unseen in the field alongside my road. His horse jumped out of control over the hedge and I had a full on collision with horse and rider. Both came over my car and ripped the top off off it. The horse was in agony and had to be destroyed and the huntsman lay in a coma for three days, hovering between life and death. Naturally I was concerned about the huntsman's condition, and would have been upset had he died. But he made his choices and caused his own accident. The innocent horse however was a victim of the rider's selfish folly. I was extremely distressed for a long time that I had killed a horse, and it still pains me thirty years later. The fact that I put a old man into a coma troubles me not in the slightest. I can't help but wonder how many others really do love animals more than humans, or maybe I'm a really sick individual? Whatever, I feel comfortable with who I am.

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